City Council Legislative Session - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

good evening and welcome to the hampton city council meeting um madam clerk will you call roll please councilman bowman president vice mayor brown here councilwoman campbell president councilwoman therapy president councilwoman harper president councilwoman mugler president mayor gray president uh this evening the invocation will be given by councilman randy bowman followed by the pleasure of allegiance so please stand and join us for both

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of community. Bring us closer together in peace, love and unity. Open our eyes to the needs of our neighbors. Give us strength to support vulnerable and help us build a welcoming place where everyone can thrive. Keep our first responders safe and protect them so they can continue to protect our love city. Strengthen those that are lonely, sick, and facing difficult times. Heal the divides between us and replace judgment with compassion. This is our prayer that we ask in your name and all God's people say it in agreement. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Amen.

You know, sports is pretty big in our city, especially amongst the young kids, from soccer to baseball to basketball to football to flag football. And we like to lift up and celebrate those who accomplish good things in the community. And so we have some young players here tonight from the Hampton Bay Sports Club Elite 6U Flag Football Team. And they are the first flag football team in Virginia to win a gold medal in the AAU Junior Olympics Games, the 2026 National Championship Games. So let's give them a round of applause. And... So I'm gonna call them up by name, and then call up the coaches, and then our council members will come down and take a photo with the players and the coaches, and congratulate the young men. So, Austin Spencer, and just come on up right up here, Austin, and stand right down here in front of the podium. We have Elijah McClatcher. We have Jules Cato. We have Kazee Fletcher. We have Kamari Davis. We have Kahari Shuler, Jr. We have Kalief Langston. We have Malcolm Bue. We have Messiah Williams. And we have Robert Scott V. and then the coaches are coach robert tank scott coach khalid fletcher and coach kihari shula so come on up coach and his son is on the team

Okay. Thank you.

Back up just a little bit.

Everybody come back.

Everybody back up.

Just a little bit.

There we go. Beautiful. All right.

Big smile.

All right. Big smile, guys. Thank you. Okay.

And lastly, in the mayor's comments, I want to remind everybody that the Hampton Cup Regatta will take place September 5th and 6th, preceded by the Bash on the Bridge on Friday, September 4th. And this year will be the 100th anniversary of this event, which is the East Coast premier inboard hydroplane race. 100th anniversary of the Hampton Cup Regatta. So congratulations to all the organizers of that. We have a request to remove items number 7-260252 from the consent agenda by a separate vote. Madam Clerk.

The consent agenda consists of routine, non-controversial items requiring the Council's approval. These items are typically adopted with one motion and without discussion. Tonight, your consent agenda approves fiscal year 2026 third quarter budget adjustment. It approves the FY2027 Council approved budget to accept and appropriate approximately $5.6 million in additional revenue from the state for the school's operating budget. It declares the city's intent to reimburse itself from bond proceeds or other obligations by advancing approximately $9.4 million to reimburse itself from proceeds of bonds or other obligations by authorizing an advance of approximately $9.4 million from the city's general fund unassigned fund balance to the FY27 capital budget capital projects fund for certain designated projects. It approves issuance of up to $22 million in multifamily housing revenue bonds by the Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority. It approves the eighth amended charter agreement of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. It amends and re-enacts the City Code to authorize the City to waive residential parking permit fees when doing so is necessary to address a public safety concern. It vacates the city's interest in a portion of Lawrence Avenue and approves a vacation agreement between the city of Hampton, HRHA, and North Mallory Quay, LLC. It initiates amendments to the zoning ordinance regarding revocation of certain zoning administrator permits and appeals. It extends the city manager's employment agreement. It corrects a typographical error in the minutes which were approved on July 8, 2026, and approves the minutes of six city council meetings.

And we need a motion and a second.

Mr. Mayor, move approval of tonight's consent agenda. Second.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. And Mayor Gray.

Aye.

I'll now read item number seven, which was removed from the consent agenda. It is 26-0252. It is a motion to approve and adopt a formal municipal naming policy. It is requested that this item be deferred until September 9, 2026. Any motion in the second?

So moved.

Second. Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown. Aye. Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Muggler. Aye. Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Thank you.

Okay. I only have one proclamation to read tonight. Councilwoman Harper just asked me if I was reading a proclamation, so she'll love this one. Proclaiming August 26, 2026 as Women's Equality Day in the city of Hampton, Virginia. Whereas Women's Equality Day commemorates the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote. And whereas this right was won through decades of courage, sacrifice, and persistence by suffragists and activists who fought for women of all races and backgrounds. And whereas the fight for equality remains today as women continue to face challenges in areas such as voting rights, pay equity, access to health care, and protection from violence. And whereas recognizing women's equality affirms the vital role women have played in shaping democracy and society, And whereas Women's Equality Day serves as a reminder for everyone to uphold the values of dignity, fairness, freedom, and equality for all women to work together to ensure the promise of the 19th Amendment is fully realized. Now, therefore, I, James A. Gray, Mayor, on behalf of the City Council, the City of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby proclaim August 26, 2026, as Women's Equality Day in the City of Hampton, Virginia, And furthermore, I call upon all citizens of Hampton to join me in honoring the legacy of those who fought for suffrage and equality and supporting policies and practice that advance women's rights and representation and leadership in all areas of life. witness where about here to set my hand cause the seal the city of Hampton Virginia to be a fixed is 26 day of August 2026 and James a great man so congratulations to all the women who work in our city who lead on a city council to all of our employees and all women in our community. Thank you.

now i want to ask the clerk to read a protocol for public hearings the city council is committed to fair and respectful hearings the following guidelines help ensure an orderly process individuals wishing to speak must sign up in the city hall lobby starting one hour before the meeting and ending when the meeting begins speakers will be called in the order they signed up speakers shall address council from the center podium each speaker is allowed three minutes the timer has a green light which will turn yellow with one minute remaining and then red when your time is up All comments must be addressed to the council and speakers may not yield their time to others. After all speakers are heard, the mayor will close the public hearing and invite council discussion and action. And your first public hearing this evening is item number 13, 26-0095. a rezoning application by north mallory quay llc to rezone approximately 14 acres of land from several parcels on sergeant street and lawrence avenues from one family residential r11 district to one family residential r4 and multi-family residential md4 districts with conditions to redevelop the properties for one family detached dwelling and townhouse units all right city manager mr mayor council members chief planner donald whipple will be doing the presentation this evening

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of council. As the clerk just read, this is a rezoning application number 26-0095 by North Mallory Quay, specifically to rezone approximately 14 acres at Sargent Street and Lawrence Avenue from one family residential R11 district to one family residential R4 and multiple dwelling MD4 districts with proper conditions for the development of one family residences and townhouse units. As indicated by the red star, this property is located almost equal distance between Buckrow Beach and the Phoebus area of the city along North Mallory Street. And more specifically, as outlined in blue, this is the property in question. Many of you may recognize it as the name as formerly the College Court property. Now the specifics of the proposal are 41 family detached homes that would have attached garages and decorative paved sidewalks. Approximately 35 townhomes, a combination of two-story units with detached garages and three-story units with attached garages. All of these townhome units would be front-facing with rear access off of private alleys. And with respect to the architectural character, the designs have been modeled after the Buckrow pattern book guidance, and they include architectural grade materials. Further, with respect to landscaping, the proposal includes new streetscaping, both tree save of existing new trees or at least measures to do so and supplement with new trees, enhanced landscaping at the entries along North Mallory Street, and all landscaping would be native species. Regarding the amenity, there would be a small community lake with a pedestrian path around it and include site furnishings such as benches, picnic tables, and trash receptacles. And with regards to resilience, all the units would have Energy Star HVAC and appliances. All would be pre-wired for generators and level 2 EV charging and storm rated materials. This is the concept plan that's being submitted and proffered. The perimeter, all of the light blue, those are the single family lots. And that... Consequently, that would be the recommended zoning to R4. The center part that's kind of pink colored, those would be the townhome units, and that would be the section that would be rezoned to MD4. And then you see off to the right in the center, the stormwater amenity, which would be the open water amenity with the lake or excuse me with the path that encircles it and the site furnishings there are existing access points that would be maintained here off to the left off of old buckrow road This existing access point off of North Mallory and there would be a new access point off of North Mallory in this location. And as mentioned, there would be enhanced landscaping along North Mallory and also here at the entrance to Old Buckrow or off of Old Buckrow. These are some of the elevations that are being proffered just to show you a mixture of anticipated colors, styles, and the building materials. and this is for the one family residential. And then I just have in the presentation, I'll expect you to be able to make out these floor plans, but in case there's any questions to that specifically, how the plans would be laid out, those are there for your reference. And these are the elevations, again, showing on the left-hand side, the proposed two-story units, kind of the styling there, as well as the materials. And on the right-hand side, the styling and materials for the three-story units. And these are the floor plans for the proposed townhomes. This is the two-story model onto the left and the three-story model shown on the right. The existing zoning as mentioned is a one family residential R4 and the future land use map shows this as being the future land use being low density residential. Additional public policy from the actual community plan talks about encouraging and maintaining a diverse mix of housing types and values, safeguarding the integrity of the existing residential neighborhood, promoting high quality design and site planning, treating residential streets as both public right-of-ways as well as neighborhood amenities through the provision of sidewalks, street trees, and other amenities, encouraging a mix of land uses that would be appropriate for this district. And with respect to our housing and neighborhood policies, supporting redevelopment as part of a comprehensive approach to promote healthy neighborhoods and housing quality, support zoning requirements and other strategies that would allow for increased housing mix and density in appropriate locations. And also encouraging the development of higher value housing, focusing on higher value strategies within our city's strategic investment areas. And speaking of which, this is within our Buckrow Master Plan strategic area. And some public policy from that, some general policy policy, pertains to the buckrow area it speaks to diversifying the housing by developing high quality single-family homes and developing new low-scale beach-oriented housing on underutilized vacant properties more specific to this site and this is directly from the master plan this is the actual site that we're looking at it talks about improving the street infrastructure sidewalks and the drainage in this area, providing new housing units, preserving the existing mature and healthy trees, and providing a neighborhood park. The proper conditions include the concept plan, design requirements which include the building elevations, the design and color palette, building elements, and building materials. that includes the open space amenity, including the walking trail, the site furnishings, and tree preservation. We mentioned the landscaping design. There's some specific requirements there regarding making sure that those are well landscaped entryways. And then the infrastructure improvement, curb and gutter, sidewalks, new utility lines and connections, and underground and electrical utilities. A community meeting was held in January of this year. It was well attended. Approximately 15 residents were in attendance. Most of the questions that came up, no really objection to the proposal, but just some questions around the housing unit sizes and the price points, the potential impact on existing housing values, what the actual infrastructure improvements would be, and whether or not there would be a homeowners association. So that brings us to our recap of our staff analysis. This plan or proposal most definitely furthers the adopted policies of not only the Hampton Community Plan, but the direct recommendations from our Buckrow Master Plan. It is a key redevelopment site of vacant land within the Buckrow Master Plan area. It provides a diverse mix of housing types and values with high quality design and site planning and includes high quality building materials. In conclusion, the applicant is here, and after they have an opportunity to present and the public hearing is held, staff and planning commission have recommended approval of rezoning 26-0095 with 11 proper conditions. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have of me.

Any questions for Mr. Whipple?

uh councilman bowman thank you mr mayor mr whipple great presentation um the building elements the design the color just outstanding job i just want to thank you for having a community meeting and letting us know the outcome because that is very important so thank you for doing so thank you any other questions all right thank you mr whipple uh is the applicant here and they have a presentation

Going to go back to the concept plan here. There we go. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of City Council and staff. For the record, my name is Lisa Murphy. I'm a local zoning attorney, and I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant, North Mallory Quay, and they are the developers of this project. The project before you tonight, as many of you well know, is the culmination of really over six, almost six and a half years of work uh and design and redesign by the development team consisting of arlen development north mallory quay llc kraus and saunders architects and timmins engineering and lots of other folks i may have forgotten to mention in addition we really want to thank city staff not only mr whipple for his excellent presentation and for all of his work coordinating this project both the design review and the rezoning but a roommate with economic development, Stephen Lynch, Angela King in the city attorney's office who worked with us on the development agreement and all of the issues they came up with through the rezoning and so many others whose hard work on your city staff and dedication helped bring this to fruition. So we really tremendously appreciate all of the work by so many folks who have been involved. As Mr. Whipple indicated, this redevelopment project involves approximately 14 acres, contiguous acres, which is what you see before you. It's nearly all of the land that was originally subdivided as the College Court subdivision. The vast majority of the property is owned by HRHA. My client has acquired several parcels and then there is a parcel that's still to be acquired, but they've managed to combine all of these properties so we can get one nice new cohesive development. We appreciate you approving the street vacation on the consent agenda and approximately where that the the portion of the lake near the road is the street that you just closed and it had parcels owned by HRAHA on either side. So thank you for that. That street vacation helps make this concept plan all work together, which is why that had to happen first. And we appreciate you all doing that. In order to redevelop the property again with the vision that the development team had with 40 single family detached homes and 35 town homes, they really had to have to rezone the property. The property currently is r11 which allows for single family and duplexes as mr whipple mentioned and it's being rezoned to r4 and md4 so the light blue along the outside ring is the single family component of the community and then as was mentioned you've got the town homes in the center of the community the rezoning also enables us to to re-subdivide re-subdivide the property The plan that you have before you allows for this mix of units. So the new subdivision named North Mallory Quay, which is located along the eastern boundary of the intersection of historic and resurgent Phoebus section of the city, will be a thoughtfully designed neo-traditional neighborhood that will celebrate the architectural and cultural heritage of Phoebus while introducing high quality new housing and enhanced community connectivity. The project name, North Mallory Quay, in case anybody's wondering, reflects both its street orientation and its connection to the water, a place where land, community, Hampton's maritime heritage, and the Chesapeake Bay's legacy all intersect. The townhomes, as you'll see in the pink area in the middle, will be designed in cohesive rows with two rows facing public streets and then a row actually facing the lake, which we think is a nice design feature. Each will have varied facades reflecting, as was indicated, that traditional coastal and early 20th century design cues. the lake feature is you know one of the central features of this community it also is a giant storm water management facility so the current college court subdivision doesn't have any of the modern storm water management flood resiliency that we have today so all of that will be brought up to current standards in in what is a nice design feature as well An integrated network of pedestrian-friendly lanes, green space, and parks wrapped around that community lake will encourage neighborhood interaction and outdoor living. A variety of materials will be used for paving within the front yards, as Mr. Whipple indicated, to create places of interest. There'll be decorative sidewalks, which will be utilized from the front stoop of the single-family homes to the driveway or the street, and then from the front stoop of the townhomes to the street or the shared sidewalk. In addition, there'll be decorative pavement utilized throughout the neighborhood and strategic public areas. If you're starting to get the idea, we've spent a tremendous amount of time with your staff and with the developer working through making sure we've thought through all of these design features and amenities and components of this new community Parking will be provided for all of the uses. And then there will also be parking on both sides of both Sargent and Lawrence through and it'll be unrestricted. So there'll be on street parking, plenty of parking for the residents and for visitors. As I mentioned, the community lake, which will also function as a modern stormwater management facility, really is meant to be the focal point It'll be designed and planted to appear natural. Street trees will be planted on either side of the multi-use trail around the lake, and then there'll be pedestrian amenities. As Mr. Whipple mentioned, we've proffered a homeowners association, and the purpose of the homeowners association is to impose all of the design standards that we've also proffered, but also to make sure that those amenities are all taken care of in perpetuity. uh i don't want to get too much into what mr whipple covered because he really did go through quite a bit these are the elevations the single family and then the uh proposed townhome elevations uh As was mentioned, we did have a community meeting, and a lot of the questions, and they were mostly questions, people were just interested in what was going on, especially because there had been, over time, a lot of the homes had been removed from the property, so there was a lot of interest. just to hit on the high points as mr whipple mentioned the project aligns closely with buckrow plans specific goals of encouraging compatible infill development that respects existing neighborhood scale and reinforcing the area's identity as a coastal walkable community it really strengthens the linkages to the fort monroe and buckrow beach waterfronts and it helps to promote a mix of housing types to broaden hampton's residential appeal Overall, as was mentioned, the project is consistent with HRHA's policy goals and the Buckrow Plan, which recommend increasing the population of Buckrow to support a vibrant commercial base through the addition of high-quality residential units in order to facilitate economic development and to enhance the quality of life for residents. The Buckrow plan, as was mentioned, calls for multifamily mixed income communities with architectural and design based features on colonial and Victorian styles that reflect, again, the coastal location of Buckrow. The master plan encourages the types of design elements that we've incorporated, including porters, awnings, dormers, and then using the master plan in the Buckrow Bayfront pattern book as its guide, the developer intends to develop a community with a mix of those high quality single family detached homes and townhomes in harmony with buckrose historic tradition in conclusion north mallory quay represents a unique opportunity for the city of hampton to really see its heritage carried forward through a new community that captures the spirit of Buckrow Beach and Phoebus, its history, architecture, its proximity to the Chesapeake Bay. As Mr. Whipple mentioned, staff and your planning commission have recommended approval, and we respectfully request that you approve Conditional Rezoning 26-0095. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you I'm just white in the questions for the applicant from this way. Councilman Muggler.

And pardon me if I missed this but as the question or rose in the in the community meetings the housing unit sizes range from.

what square footage yeah let me get back to that so the town homes with the integrated garages will be a minimum of 1800 square feet of living heated living area and then the single family homes will provide a minimum of 2 000 square feet of heated living area okay and the price points so the the range would be the town homes are expected to be priced from the mid to upper 300s and the single family homes are projected to range between the upper fours and the mid 500 000 so it really is a higher end we anticipate that those townhome units that are going to be back that are going to back up to the lake will be very popular because of because of the view that they'll have. And those those will probably command a premium as far as the higher end townhomes.

Okay, any other questions? All right. Thank you, Miss Murphy.

Thank you.

Okay, this item requires a public hearing, so I'm going to open the public hearing. Ms. Murphy, you did sign up to speak, but I think you've already covered everything you need. So there are no other speakers, so we'll close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move that City Council approve rezoning application 26-0095, subject to 11 proper conditions as presented in the agenda packet.

Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? There being none, Madam Clerk, to call the roll.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Item number 14 on your agenda this evening is 26-0176. It's a rezoning application 26-0176 by Perlman's Property Management LLC to rezone approximately five acres in the 600 block of Aberdeen Road and on 60th Street from light manufacturing M2, limited commercial C2, and one family residential R11 districts to light manufacturing M2 with conditions to expand and operate a crane and rigging business.

City Manager?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Donald LaPole, our Chief Planner, will do this one as well.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of Council. This is rezoning application 26-0176 by Perlman, Crane, and Rigging. The properties in question are 618-636 Aberdeen Road and 2303 60th Street. The components of this application are to rezone approximately five acres of land from one family residential R11 district and limited commercial C2 district and light manufacturing M2 district all to M2 district conditional to expand and operate a crane and rigging business. As indicated by the red star, this property is located within Copeland Industrial Park, which is in the southwestern portion of the city. More specifically, these are the properties in question. And this kind of large rectangular area here is the current crane business, crane and rigging business. And these are the other properties that are subject to the rezoning. So the specifics of the proposal is, as I just mentioned, the crane and rigging business currently operates at 2303 60th Street, and they plan to expand the business to encompass five additional parcels, 618, 632, 634, 636, and 638 Aberdeen Road. All site access would be limited to 60th Street and there would be really the only improvements as part of this project would be to add landscape buffering and fencing along Aberdeen Road as well as residents that abut this property to the north and west. This is the concept plan. This shows all of the parcels in question that would become part of the crane and rigging business. As mentioned, this is the current operation here. They would expand basically their lay down area into this portion of the site. uh this is an existing uh office building uh that for the time being would continue to be an office building either leased out or the company itself could move their offices or expand their offices to that location the green shown here is where the landscape buffer would be beginning at this point here at aberdeen road over to this corner up the south side of this property, the back side, or yeah, the east side here and then the north side of these properties. So this would be adding landscaping and fencing along Aberdeen Road as well as the adjacent residential properties. And this, the existing zoning map, so this reflects the various zoning that I mentioned, the current site, which is already M2, the commercial C2 site, and then the four currently zoned residential properties along Aberdeen. The future land use map, it does call for two of the properties to be business industrial. However, four of the existing residential are shown as future land use as low density residential. The reasoning for that, when we did this plan back in 2006, there was really no need to encompass existing residential properties and show them as something other, whether it be industrial or commercial, without an actual plan in place. So some public policy from the community plan that speaks to this, speaks to promoting the efficient use of land, protecting community appearance, character, and design, evaluate land use proposals from a regional, citywide, and neighborhood perspective, safeguard the integrity of the existing residential neighborhood, preserve and enhance the identity of scenic qualities of city corridors and gateways, and encourage corridor-oriented commercial development within specified areas to strengthen the viability of commercial uses, all while protecting residential uses and adjacent neighborhoods. and also protecting natural systems and restoring and creating or recreating natural systems where they've been compromised and using landscaping and other improvements to create attractive and distinctive corridors. And from an economic development standpoint, You see here fostering this successful development of well-situated vacant underutilized properties and giving special attention and strengthening the ability of older commercial and industrial areas to support new and expanded business activity. There are conditions that are being proffered by the applicant, which include the concept plan, vacating all the parcel lines that are in play, applying the Copeland Industrial Park design guidelines, fencing materials, landscape guidance, resilience and sustainable elements associated with this proposal, as well as assuring that we have provisions for the appropriate lighting, dust control, limitation on uses, as well as the hours of operation. All of these are these last few here about lighting, dust, limitation of use in our operation, all speak to protecting the integrity of the neighborhood that's to the north of the property. There was a community meeting that was held in December Just there were, I think, about three people in attendance. There was some potential concern from the existing apartment community, which is across Aberdeen Road. And they had some concerns about the visual look of it from their property, as well as the noise. And the applicant can speak to this further, but the applicant worked with the apartment community really address those issues. And that's where a lot of these proffers that I just pointed out about protecting the neighborhood came from, such as increasing the buffering areas and through fencing and landscaping, restricting the hours of operations. With respect to our city analysis, this does align with our city policies. Aberdeen Road is mostly a business corridor oriented towards commercial development. And this property is at the edge, it's within and on the edge of our Copeland Industrial Park. and this would support a a viable business and their expansion and there are provisions that are being proffered to safeguard the residential community through landscape buffers opaque fencing and restriction on the hours of operation That can is here on has a short presentation and after the public hearing staffing planning Commission are recommending approval of rezoning number 26 dash 0, 1, 7, 6, with 14 proper conditions that concludes my presentation be happy to answer any questions you have questions for Mister Wilco.

Council member look.

Thank you Mister mayor and just for clarification is I can't quite ascertain from the from the visuals the the landscape buffer is that on the outside of the opaque fence or the inside of the yes and so it is hard to see so the if you can see my cursor here it's on the back side.

This is the fence. proposed fence location would be on the back side of the landscaping so you have the street with the residential property landscaping and then the fence that's right. Thank you yeah.

Okay, any other questions Mister will. I thank you Mister Whipple and I believe you said the applicant has a presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, members of council. My name is Tim Trant, an attorney with Kauffman & Canole. It's my privilege to be here tonight with you on behalf of the applicant. Also with me tonight in the audience is Mr. Paul Prilliman, the owner of Prilliman's Crane and Rigging. So hopefully between the two of us, we can answer any questions that you have. Mr. Whipple really covered the substance of the application well, so I won't belabor things. We've been Mister will hurt Mister Perlman has been in his business of this been really blessed with an increasing demand for their services and they're running out of room. And that's the that's the reason for the application really excited about this opportunity to expand. Hope we're we're going about it the right way ask for your support. Thank you.

Okay questions for the applicant. All right.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, man.

All right. This item requires a public hearing, so we're going to open the public hearing. I do not have any speakers signed up for this one, so we'll close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move that the City Council approve rezoning application 26-0176, subject to 14 proferred conditions as presented in the agenda packet. Second.

All right we have a motion to second is any further discussion. All right there being a man for recall role.

Councilman Bowman I vice mayor Brown. All right can't woman Campbell I can't woman therapy I can't woman Harper I can't woman Muggler I mayor Gray. Item number 15 on your agenda this evening is 26-0218, rezoning application number 26-0218 by Old Town Development LLC to rezone three parcels in the 1500 block of West Queen Street, encompassing approximately 5.5 acres of land from multifamily residential MD4 district with conditions and one family residential R13 district to multifamily residential MD4 district with conditions for a multifamily development.

right city manager once again you have chief planner donald whipple

It's what we did tonight, yes, yes, sir. As for this read again good evening. Mayor Craig members of Council. This is reasoning application 26 desk here to one 8 and he's from an application 26.

I'm sorry Mister mayor, I'm sorry to me. Yes, briefly. I think there's also a use permit with this that should be read and they can be done together. I think the store was going to present them together.

would you like me to read the time now i'm sorry this is also item number 16 26-0219 it's a use permit application along with the previous one that i read number 26-0219 by old town development llc to allow for the development of 68 multi-family dwelling units within multi-family i'm sorry within multiple residential md4 district in the 1500 block of west queen street thank you

all right uh so rezoning and use for application uh being presented jointly by old town development llc for properties located 1534 1538 and 1540 west queen street to rezone approximately five and a half acres from multi-family residential md4 district with conditions and one family residential r13 district to multi-family residential md4 district with conditions for the purpose of a multi-family development and an approved use permit is required for the multi-family use as indicated by the red star this property is located near the intersection of briar field road queen west queen street and power plant parkway And you see the three parcels here outlined in blue, and they stretch back to, they all have frontage on New Market Creek, and this is West Queen Street. uh just to give a little bit of site history uh in 2020 city council approved a rezoning of these two properties 1540 and 1538 for the purpose for the same purpose to do a multi-family development and shortly thereafter the developer was able to acquire 1534. So he has retooled his proposal and is bringing it back now six years later to enlarge the proposal to include 68 units, 36 of which are proposed to be one bedroom units, 32 would be two bedroom units, in one four-story building via vehicular access would be directly to west queen street and there would be pedestrian connections throughout the site there would be enhanced landscaping along the east eastern and western site boundaries and approximately 99 parking spaces As far as community amenities, outside there would be a mulched walking path that leads from the development back to Newmarket Creek so that residents have access to the creek. Internally, there would be a conference room fitness facility activity room and a mail center with respect to resilience the building materials are proposed to be storm rated there the storm water detention would be all underground and there would be two level two eb charging stations provided for the residents So this is the concept plan. This is Queen Street here at the bottom of the page. This L-shape here is the proposed building with the proposed parking here on the right-hand side. And this is where the mulch path would lead up north to the new market creek and this is the access point proposed access point here it's also hard to see you may be asking this is adjacent to new market creek and this is the extent of the chesapeake bay buffer so all of the development is outside of the preservation area with the exception of the mold mulch path so that's the purpose for The building being pushed up closer to the street and I mentioned the interconnected sidewalks which would be connected in 2 spots at least 2 spots out to the sidewalk that's along the street. These are the building elevations that represent what the building would look like as far as the architectural style and the elements as well as the building materials. These are the other two sides. The zoning map, as it reflects the previous rezoning from 2020, which shows these two parcels already being zoned to MD4 and this additional parcel, which is R13. And the future land use map does show this property being recommended as high density residential. So some public policy, again, promoting, excuse me, the efficient use of land, protecting community appearance, character and design, encouraging and maintaining a diverse mix of housing types, evaluating land use proposals from regional, citywide and neighborhood perspective, encouraging compact high density mixed use development where appropriate to create walkable communities, Encourage building design and site planning that enhances community interaction and personal safety, and encouraging a mix of uses that is appropriate for each district, as well as efficient use of land and high quality urban design. From a housing neighborhood perspective, encouraging mixed use projects as a mean of increasing the housing supply while promoting diversity and revitalization of neighborhoods. And from an economic development standpoint, ensuring that the city's implementation plans, physical infrastructure and land use regulations support the city's goals for economic growth and fostering the successful development of well-situated vacant land or underutilized properties within the city. and then from a resilient standpoint protecting natural systems and restoring natural systems where they may have been compromised in this case that's not the case and appreciate uh hampton's culture of water and promoting access to the water As mentioned, there are proper conditions. It's limited to the 68 units that are being proposed. The parcel lines would be vacated into one collective parcel. The concept plan, including the mulched walking path, are being proffered, as well as the building elevations, building materials, landscape guidance, screening of HVAC systems, fencing materials, parking lot screening, the dumpster enclosure, as well as site lighting and EV charging. And with respect to the use permit conditions, most of them are covered, or most of the conditions of the development are covered under the proper conditions, so there's compliance with that, as well as our standard use permit conditions for multifamily, which address security, site management, and certificate of occupancy. There was a community meeting held in May. There were a few questions that came up, again, mostly just out of curiosity, number of units, how big the building was gonna be, was there gonna be enough parking? Was this project gonna be low income? And was there gonna be any issues with drainage and flooding or traffic? And then also some questions about landscaping. And to summarize this presentation, the proposal does align with the city's policies. It is compatible with the future land use map. It is appropriate redevelopment of underutilized vacant land in the city, and it's adding much needed residential units. It's compatible with the residential community through the quality design and use of quality building materials. It's adjacent to other apartment communities. It provides good pedestrian connectivity as well as enhanced landscaping, and there's appropriate screening of the HVAC systems and the dumpster. The applicant is here. I don't think he has a presentation, but is certainly able to, or willing to answer any questions you may have of them. After the public hearing, planning commission and staff are recommending approval of the rezoning application 26-0218 with 18 proper conditions, as well as recommending approval of use permit number 26-0219, subject to eight conditions. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have with me.

Questions for Mr. Whipple on these two items? Questions? Thank you, Mr. Whipple. Does anybody have questions for the applicant? Okay. All right this item requires a public hearing. And so we'll open the public hearing. There's no one to sign up to speak for this item these 2 items and so we'll close the public hearing and call for motion.

Mister mayor. I mean that City Council approved rezoning application 26 dash 0 to 1, 8 subject to 18 proffered conditions and use permit application 26 dash 0 to 1, 9 subject to 8 conditions both as presented in the agenda packet. Second.

All right we have a motion and a second is a further discussion. There being none matter clerk to call the roll.

Councilman Boman. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown. Aye. Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. Mayor Gray.

Aye.

The next item on your agenda is 1726-0221. It is a use permit application by Canopy Development to permit 255 multifamily dwellings on 1044 Vaughn Schilling Drive.

City manager.

Mr. Whipple finally gets a break and you're going to get to hear from Quinn Heinrich, city planner.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council, Madam City Manager. Once again, my name is Quinn Heinrich. Tonight I'll be presenting use permit number 26-0221, which is an application by Canopy Development to permit 255 multifamily dwellings at 1044 Von Schilling Drive in the C2 District and Coliseum Central overlay. This parcel is located in the center of Hampton in the Coliseum central area as indicated by the red star. More specifically, it is just north of Von Schilling Drive, and it's two different parcels that are right next to each other bordering the Verizon maintenance facility. To the north is the Peninsula Grove apartment complex. To the east is a series of vacant parcels. To the south is the Riverdale Riverpoint Shopping Center. To the west is Coliseum Drive, and off the screen is Peninsula Town Center. And as you can see on this image, there is a building that's currently on this, or that was previously on this site. That was the Cinema Cafe, which has since been closed and demolished as of last year. So the land is currently vacant. In its place, the applicant proposes 255 apartment units. There would be 38 studio units, 110 one-bedroom units, 99 two-bedroom units, and eight three-bedroom units. These will be distributed across three four-story apartment buildings that will face Von Schilling Drive. There will also be a clubhouse and a separate building that will contain a resort-style pool, a fitness center, business center, yoga studio. There will be grilling stations and park benches throughout the development. There will also be a dog park located near the proposed BMP. Trash will be collected at compactors that are in the interior of the buildings. The applicant is proposing several resiliency elements, which include cool roofs that are connected to the stormwater system, water saving fixtures, Energy Star or equivalent appliances. There will also be four level two electric vehicle charging stations with the potential to be covered by solar powered roofs. The site will have bicycle racks throughout the development. There will also be trees in all of the green areas, and 75% of those trees will be native to southeast Virginia. Stormwater will be managed at a BMP to the east of the site, and there will be 375 parking spaces as part of the development. All this can be seen on the concept plan shown on this slide. You can see that buildings one and three in particular go right up to Von Schilling Drive to create a more urban and pedestrian-oriented set of buildings. Building two runs parallel to Von Schilling Drive and is set behind them. The clubhouse is at the corner of Von Schilling and Enfield Drive, and the purpose of its location is to orient the site closer to the building or the businesses along Coliseum Drive and Peninsula Town Center. The BMP is on the eastern end of the site, and that is an existing facility that will be upgraded as part of this project. This is another visual of the or another concept plan that shows the dwell or the or the um interior of the apartment complexes and some of the layout potential of where the buildings are going to be these are some building elevations with the materials called out and this is a rendering that shows the building facing northeast and you can see off to the corner there are on-street parking spaces that will be added to von schilling drive as part of this project as well The parcels are currently zoned limited commercial C2, as is most of the surrounding area. The Verizon maintenance facility is zoned general commercial C3 and part of the apartment complex to the north is multiple residential RM. It's worth noting that normally in the C2 district there are stricter standards on density and the setbacks as a result of these projects but because of its location in the coliseum central overlay we were able to waive some of those requirements especially allowing significantly greater density than we would have otherwise that's to encourage more urban style development within coliseum central The Hampton Community Plan's future land use map designates this site and most of the surrounding area as mixed use. The one parcel it is not is the current apartment complex to the north that is high density residential. The land use plan also has several policies that are relevant to this site, which include encouraging and maintaining a diverse mix of housing types and values. evaluating land use proposals from a regional citywide and neighborhood perspective encouraging compact high density mixed use development where appropriate to create walkable communities and promote increased fixed physical activity encouraging building design and site planning that enhances community interaction and physical safety and encouraging high quality new developments that are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods Additionally, the housing and neighborhood section of the community plan recommends encouraging mixed use projects as a means of increasing the housing supply while promoting diversity and the revitalization of neighborhoods and districts. And our economic development section of the community plan recommends ensuring that the city's implementation plans, physical infrastructure, and land use regulations support the city's goals for economic development and also fostering the successful development of well-suited, vacant, and underutilized property within the city. This site also falls within the Coliseum Central Master Plan area, which specifically recommends the conversion of Riverdale Plaza area from retail to a more mixed use development. And it also specifically recommends high density residential uses in the location of this property on the north side of Von Schilling Drive. additional policies in that area include extending new streets to strengthen connectivity implementing the street network to accommodate a mix of uses fronting streets with multi-story buildings with urban setbacks placing large retail and parking in the street network clustering pedestrian oriented businesses around public spaces providing a mix of high quality housing types with urban patterns and tying new development into the existing apartment complexes And throughout Coliseum Central, the master plan calls for residential development at dense scales to support neighboring businesses. And it also encourages pedestrian and transit friendly development. So in summary, this proposal will add many high quality residential units to the Coliseum Central area. It is strongly compliant with the Hampton Community Plan and especially the Coliseum Central Master Plan. It makes efficient use of vacant parcel while orienting it towards the businesses on Coliseum Drive and Peninsula Town Center. um it will generate less traffic than the movie theater that was there previously and it will help transform von schilling drive into a more urban street with on-street parking sidewalk street trees and street lighting which will improve the connectivity of this region as a whole Staff is recommending 21 conditions as part of this project, which include conformance with the concept plan and elevations, compliance with the Coliseum Central design guidelines, appropriate screening for HVACs and dumpsters, resilience elements as indicated earlier in this presentation, we're also asking the applicant vacate the property line to combine the two parcels of this development into one parcel that will provide security cameras in all the parking lots as well as standard compliance with all applicable laws revocation and nullification the applicant held a community meeting on june 15th of this year there was one community member in attendance and they asked a question about on-site amenities specifically whether the former movie theater would be incorporated into the new development in some way In conclusion, the applicant is here and has an opportunity to present. And after the public hearing, staff and Planning Commission both recommend approval of use permit number 26-0221, subject to 21 conditions. Thank you, and I'm available for any questions you may have.

Questions for Mr. Henry? All right. Thank you, sir. Did you say the applicant wants to present?

Yes, they are here.

Good evening. Mayor, Vice Mayor, distinguished members of City Council, Madam City Manager. My name is Hal Yule with Canobie Development. My office is 208 East Plume Street in Norfolk. Um, I've got, uh, two members of my team with me, uh, Brandon Music with Timmons Engineering and, um, Gray Mason with, uh, Cox Cleaver. Uh, they're the team that has worked, uh, diligently with city staff to come up with this, uh, plan development. Um, I'd also like to thank all the efforts from, uh, city math, I mean, city staff rather, and, uh, economic development. We've, we've worked hard together over the last, um, year and a half on this project. And I think we've come up with a, project that the city of Hampton will be proud of I know it's a project that we will certainly be proud of and and I look forward to investing in the city of Hampton you know that that area is a blighted area currently today I think this is a not the area but that site rather I should restate that you know it's it's something that we've got a great vision for with first-class building materials you know, our architects here to answer any questions that you all have on this project. But it's, you know, it's a project that we're going to be proud of and one that you all will be proud of as well. You know, with that, if you guys have any questions, I'm here and would love to bring these guys up as well to handle any technical questions that you may have as well.

All right. Any questions for the applicant? All right. No, no, we're good. I think Mr. Henry covered it pretty well. All right this item requires a public hearing and so we're going to open the public hearing have one person signed up to speak when the marks.

And they're great like me a brand Council member city manager but. I don't have an objection to this complex. My concern and what I want to voice tonight is y'all have gone crazy approving apartments in the Coliseum area. In fact, you've gone crazy approving them all over. We're told they're affordable. At $1,500 a month to qualify, you have to make $54,000 a year. At $1,750, you'd have to make $63,000 a year. And at $2,000, you'd have to make $72,000. So these affordable apartments couldn't really be afforded by your entry-level teachers, your entry-level police personnel. I've been told that apartments generate real property taxes whether they are occupied or not. But I have not seen one presentation yet that y'all have shown that any of the approval process has taken into consideration the demand on police. fire rescue schools the overall insurance rates for the entire city are driven by our iso ratings and our iso ratings are only better when we have a minimum number of police officers per capita fire and rescue per capita When you keep loading and loading and loading, you're not just impacting that one complex. You are impacting every person that pays homeowners insurance in this city. So every time y'all have been asked about staffing our police department, you said nobody wants to be police officers anymore. Building new apartment complexes is not going to change that. So where are we going to get the extra officers we will need to cover the additional people? Thank you.

Thank you miss marks and all the speakers so we'll close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mister mayor move that the City Council prove you swim at application 26 dash 0 to 2, 1 subject to 21 conditions as presented in the agenda packet.

We have a motion a second is any further discussion. All right to be in a matter for you call roll.

Councilman Bowman I vice mayor Brown I Councilwoman Campbell I Councilwoman therapy. I can't woman Harper Councilwoman Mugler I may regret. The next item on your agenda is 18 which is 26 dash 0 to 2, 6, a use permit application by car farmer and sales to allow use car sales to operate at 6.90 Bell Street.

city manager mr mayor please introduce valerie taylor city planner good evening mayor gray and members of council tonight i'm presenting use permit number 260226 at 690 bell street the applicant is requesting a use permit to allow used vehicle sales in the general commercial c3 zoning district Here is the location map that shows the property in the West Pembroke corridor as indicated by the red star. A closer view of the subject property shows suite 690 is highlighted to identify the specific location of the proposed use. The applicant's proposal is a request to conduct used vehicle sales as an additional use at the property. The applicant has been operating a light vehicle repair business at this location for approximately two years, conducting routine maintenance such as oil changes, tire repair, and replacement. The business will occupy approximately 3,500 square feet of an existing 5,500 square foot building on a one acre lot and will contain office space, service bays, and vehicle repair operations. The display area will accommodate 12 to 15 vehicles with an additional five parking spaces allotted for employees and customers. Staff will consist of one to two employees and the hours of operation will be Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Here's the site plan of the property showing the portion of the building that will be occupied by the applicant as well as the parking and display areas. The floor plan shows greater detail of the proposed uses within the facility. And here's a street view of the property as seen from Bell Street. The zoning map shows the property is zoned C3 commercial. The future land use map shows the property remaining commercial surrounded by public and semi-public uses as well as low density residential. The proposal is in alignment with policies stated in the Hampton Community Plan, such as evaluation of land use proposals from a regional, citywide, and neighborhood perspective, economic development policies such as nurturing small and startup businesses, fostering the successful redevelopment of vacant and underutilized commercial and industrial properties within the city, and focus upon attention on strengthening the ability of older commercial and industrial areas to support new and expanded business activity. Staff analysis finds that the use is consistent with the goals and policies of the Hampton Community Plan, and also compatible with the uses of the surrounding area. The use will also not create adverse impacts on adjacent properties. There are 11 recommended conditions, and there was a community meeting held on June 16th. There were no attendees from the public. This concludes the presentation. The applicant is present following the public hearing. Staff and Planning Commission recommend approval of use permit number 26-0226 subject to 11 conditions. And I'm available for any questions.

Any questions for Ms. Taylor? And being an OK, thank you that is the applicant wish to. I will make present is present but does not look at the any question for the applicant. Councilman moment.

Well, it's not a question for the applicant before the record I visited this site this morning at 9.30AM if you can go back to the screen on the seconds us map please like to point out a couple of things. No go back almost at the beginning.

Yes.

So I'd like to point out 690 is the address on Bell Street. Bell Street runs north to south from Pembroke Avenue to Shell Road. So the intersection, if you look right next to 690, which is Pembroke Avenue, that is a actual car sales building. And right across the street on the opposite side is a car sales building. The intersection is very blighted. It looks very unattractive. You have 60 homes running from north to south, and you have a school about 300, 400 feet, which is a lot of traffic. I'm just very concerned about how it lacks appearance. And I know zoning has been trying to enforce several businesses from G Street to Bell Street. It just brings me pause to have to vote on this for the change of the code when we have a blighted intersection. And it's two ways in. And when you go into this neighborhood, you have houses that are built in the 50s and the early 60s. They are like... Retired people, the houses are well maintained, but when you drive into this neighborhood, this is what you have to look at. I don't think it's safe because you have kids that are also gonna be walking from the school zone on Bell Street. I'm just not comfortable with making this change at this time.

uh vice mayor brown uh is there with the applicant it was there uh well maybe you'll know was there like a traffic study done because you're going to increase traffic in that intersection as well is there a traffic study done from this particular project there was not a traffic study that i'm aware of this location is it is off of pembroke avenue but

There should not be a heavy volume of traffic anticipated. The repair work that's done is done, I think, in a quick turnaround frame that's been light vehicle repair and the display of new vehicles or, I'm sorry, used vehicles that will be sold would probably just incur a few customers coming at a time.

And what's the number of cars it can be?

12 to 15.

Okay. At one time? Yes. Okay. Thanks.

Councilman boom and just for the record. Vice mayor Brown and myself we were at an event and we have several people corner us about a month ago not even knowing about this about the blighted conditions on Pembroke Avenue that the abandoned cars and that this jacked up in this overloading of cars in several businesses from G Street to Bell Street and we didn't even know about this project so just let you know that the comments out there in the community.

That's understandable. I just wanted to say that the applicant is currently occupying this space. So this is just an added use as an accessory to a business that is currently in operation.

Okay, so any other questions for Miss Taylor? Any questions for the applicant? So this item requires public hearing there's no one sign that will open a public hearing but there's no one sign to speak so in a close public hearing call for a motion.

It was the mayor moved that the you submit 26 dash 0, 0, 2, 6, a used car sales move that the city approved application 2020 26 dash 0, 0, 2, 6, 7, 2, 11 conditions presented in the agenda package.

All right, we have a motion seconds in a further discussion. All right, it being a matter of court to call a roll.

Councilman Bowman, no. Vice Mayor Brown, aye. Councilwoman Campbell, aye. Councilwoman Farabee, aye. Councilwoman Harper, aye. Councilwoman Mugler, no. Mayor Gray, aye. The motion carries.

All right. Madam Clerk, will you read the protocol for public comment?

Council meetings are for conducting city business. Public comment is allowed on matters within the council's authority and follows public hearing items. Speakers must follow the citizen participation protocol. Speakers may sign up in the lobby one hour before the meeting and until it begins. Speakers shall address council from the center podium. Each speaker is allowed three minutes. The timer has a green light which will turn yellow with one minute remaining, then red when time is up. please speak respectfully and avoid personal attacks focus on topics within council's jurisdiction do not use the platform for political campaign speeches comments must be directed to the council yielding time is not allowed audience must remain respectful and refrain from interruptions council typically listens without engaging in discussion responses may be provided by the city manager city attorney or council members after public comment Failure to follow the protocol may result in removal from the podium or meeting after a fair warning. Thank you.

We have several people sign up to speak. The first one is Caroline Peabody.

Thank you so much, mayor and city council members. I really appreciate this opportunity. I'm speaking today as one of your appointed business commissioners for the city neighborhood commission. Over the last month or so, I have received some interaction with local businesses and small businesses relating to the event permit process from the city of Hampton. So I took some time after speaking to some of these businesses and looked at some of the other cities surrounding the city of Hampton, specifically Newport News, Norfolk, Pocosin, Yorktown, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg, and what their outdoor event permit process looked like, their costs, and how an applicant, you know, looking at their websites and how an applicant would go through that process to obtain a permit. In that time, I do want to say I did study the city of Hampton's permit guide. I commend the city of Hampton for having a consolidated permit guide available. However, I do think there is some room for improvement. And I would encourage the city manager and the city to look at establishing a joint committee with businesses and citizens to review Hampton's policy for outdoor events. Specifically, looking at outdoor events that are using public facilities and those that are hold entirely on private property without any impact or involvement of public resources. I have five recommendations. I do have a little packet here I'll provide after I speak. to streamline and reduce the process burdens and costs for events held on private property without the need for city resources. Looking at aligning Hampton's outdoor event process more in line with some of our sister cities to be more competitive and grow as a preferred destination for outdoor events and also to encourage small businesses to support that. Review cost involved for events. For example, the cost of promoter licenses fees on top of regular business license and fees and to increase small business friendliness and opportunities to make the application process online and a little bit more transparent as far as how the permit is going through the approval process and the approvals happening and to update the permit guide with any of changes that may occur out of having such a joint collaborative effort.

and that concludes my comment and i'd like to offer this to the clerk thank you all right thank you miss peabody uh next speaker is alexander trimetan and if i didn't pronounce it please restate your name when you come up

Good evening. My name is Alexander Sharamedov. Six months ago, I spoke before you all to warn the city about its support for flock safety and the private surveillance resources. Now to my knowledge, nothing's changed to indicate the city or the municipal authority has changed their stance or done anything to further regulate the technology. Around the nation, though, flock has garnished a lot of significant negative press, so if you haven't heard, I'd like to read you some of them. In North Carolina, a police officer used flock cameras and their technology to track her boyfriend's ex-wife. In Texas, a police officer used camera systems to search for a woman suspected of having an abortion. And in Missouri, just recently, like six days ago, a police officer used flock camera systems to stalk his wife during their divorce. Now the last time I was here, I asked for stricter supervision of the program and transparency from the police department about how they use our data. Now I'm demanding their removal from the city and current contracts are immediately canceled. Let me be honest with you. I don't trust the police. Vice Mayor, you said on an interview last year, when you get the police behind you, you get nervous. Me too. I don't like it. And now I have a dozen cameras watching me on the way to work, to the grocery store, on the way home. Now, multiple city people before me have said crime is one of the top issues in our city, but you've also said no police on the street are going to fix it. We need community policing and people, not cameras, on every corner. Has crime gone down? I know homicides have gone up. Now, Phlox's official stance on this is that their cameras don't have any security vulnerabilities, they don't misuse collected data, and if you oppose their surveillance systems, you support crime or are a criminal yourself. Well, I'm here to talk about the facts. The average age on this council is 65. Do you guys not care about the technology? Do you not understand the implications of it? Hundreds of these cameras and microphones have been deployed across the Hampton Roads. These devices present an unconstitutional breach of privacy to all the Hampton residents. And the misuse of same or similar products across the US present an immediate urgency to reject this technology and condemn its support.

law-abiding citizen is just a label that they can take away and these cameras are a threat of that that's all i have thank you mr chairman next there's no clapping in the gallery no clapping next speaker is linda seeley

Okay, I have my glasses on for us. good evening mayor vice mayor city council members city manager good evening i am here tonight again at the concerns of the peninsula excuse me peninsula regional animal shelter i was recently told about a person's first-hand knowledge of many shelter dogs being kept in a filthy conditions. These conditions were observed by Dr. Carolyn Kultzer, the owner of Freed's Veterinarian Hospital and her staff. So I feel very confident about this validity of this complaint. The dog's kennel contained feces and urine, forcing some of the dogs to stand in their own waste Also, there's one dog that didn't, there were dogs with not clean water, no food in the bowls. This is unacceptable. These animals can't speak for themselves. And we spend over a million dollars, more than a million, we put that in there, a total with the four cities is four million or more. but the money should be used to take care of these little animals. I got all the paperwork I needed today to see how much everybody made and all that. I'm getting off track again, but I want to see. And another shelter matter is that animals are turned away. I know, Mary, they tell you that they aren't, but they are. If you go on Facebook and Nextdoor and Drugstore to pick up your medicine you find somebody in line tell and being disgusted little old lady older than me and there are out there They with their dog. It's a cinch. She's got a doggy sheep. They won't take it. This is not right Okay, and then let me explain to you how it works. I go in there today with three cats and They said, well, we're full. Now, this is a public shelter, and I'm a taxpayer. We're full. Then what you have to do, you have to walk out. They said, make an appointment. We'll see you in three weeks. Then I go home, and like the ex-retired public manager, Mr. Poblosky, he said, you know, Linda, They're going to set them out. That's what's going to happen. They're going to set those dogs and cats out. Because people went to the shelter to give them that. And then if you told me you're going to put my cat and dog to sleep, even if I knew I didn't have a place, I'm just, well, you know me, Mary. I would never go to a shelter with my dogs or cats. But I know how those people feel.

I know how they feel.

Thank you, darling. But I know, but you've got to do something.

All right next speaker is Alicia Garcia.

Hello there. Excuse me for my shaking voice. I'm a little nervous. It's my first time. It's nice to meet all of you. It's nice to see your faces. It really is. Since I've been here, I've learned a lot. Could you speak into the mic? Excuse me, is that a little better?

That's a little better.

Okay, so my name is Aisha Garcia. I just go by Garcia. I'm a veteran who lives here in Hampton who has worked with other veterans who are experiencing homelessness. As unfortunate as it is, these veterans spend their days in the hospitals and nights on the streets, some of which have been there for years. Both the city and the federal government have put in place safety nets, but the people we speak of, these unhoused individuals, have no idea about them or how to get those resources. What I propose is to take the building at 1430 Kecoughtan Road, which is the now old fire station or old wide fire station, station number three, and transition it into a transitional house for veterans. This would save the city the cost of possible deconstruction and or the upkeep along with expanding costs for our unhoused heroes. Some of the services I wish to provide to these veterans out of this location would be transitional housing, suicide prevention, job placement, life-saving training, drug and alcohol abuse therapy, PTSD therapy, amongst the other needs for the reintegration of our veterans back into society. What I propose would be little to no cost of the taxpayer and or the city of Hampton. I'm not asking for any funds of any capacity. There's a $3.2 billion budget that has been pushed out by Congress for veterans for just these things. Unfortunately, as a veteran care coordinator out of one of the CSBs here in Virginia, I got to see what it's like firsthand for these unhoused veterans. And I had an employee of the VA, of the Hampton VA, tell me, do not bring homeless veterans here. I will not help them. Don't worry about it. I reported it to the congressman. I reported it to the IG. But unfortunately, all that does is give him a slap on the wrist and a suspension for two weeks without pay, but he still has his job. So what I'm proposing is instead of deconstructing as it has been proposed before, and it also, to quote this very office, you individuals here, if adaptive reuse of the building is desired, staff would issue a request for interest or a request for proposals by no later than August 31st of 2026 for this location. I just found out about that this morning. I just found about it since I've been here, who to speak to so that I can come in here and give you my presentation uh properly i do have a powerpoint presentation i would like to show you so you can see where the funds will come from where you see how it will be of no cost to anyone here or anyone out there this is my first i appreciate y'all and i will see y'all soon thank you mr garcia next speaker is jaden smith

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and council members and staff. My name is Jaden Smith. I'm a graduating senior at Hampton University, and I had the privilege of interning for Versability Resources under the Marketing and Development team. At Versability Resources, we believe opportunity should be within everyone's reach. Headquartered here in Hampton, Virginia, Versability is a national nonprofit helping people with disability of all ages live, work, and thrive. From early childhood and residential services to workforce training and diverse employment programs, we help people gain independence, reach their potential, and build brighter futures. Through Versability Tech, we're taking that mission into the workforce, equipping people with disabilities for high-demand careers in maritime and manufacturing. As employers nationwide search for skilled workers, Tech provides hands-on learning and industry-recognized certifications that build skills, develop talent, and connect people to career paths where they can succeed. The result? Greater independence, stronger communities, a skilled, future-ready workforce. This workforce development reimagined. Discover what's possible at Versability Resources, where ability meets opportunity. So I'm saying all this because we would like to personally invite you all to join us for the Versability Gala on October 22nd at the Hampton Roads Convention Center. It will be a wonderful evening celebrating the people we serve, the impact of our community partners, and the exciting future we are able to build through Versability Tech. So we hope to see you there, and I also have some save-the-dates, if that's all right, to give to you all. Thank you for your time.

Okay. Thank you, Jaden. Next speaker is Tanya Marafka.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Hampton City Council. My name is Tonya Marafka and I am currently the office manager at Freed Veterinary Hospital. Our hospital has worked closely over the past several decades with the Hampton Animal Control and provided them veterinary care whenever needed. Throughout my time in this role, I have assisted countless Hampton citizens with lost, stray, abandoned, and surrendered animals, and I am also a former volunteer at the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter. Tonight I'm here because I believe Hampton is facing an animal welfare, public safety, and taxpayer accountability issue that requires immediate action. I am here to be a voice for the animals that cannot stand before you and ask for themselves. For months, Hampton residents have told me they have attempted to take found strays or animals they could no longer keep to the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter, only to be told that the shelter was full and they could not accept them. When an animal is turned away, the problem does not disappear, it is shifted back onto the citizens. Those animals may remain on our streets, become injured, reproduce, or never be reunited with the family searching for them. This deserves immediate attention. I have also documented concerning conditions at the shelter, including laundry piled up in the sally port and kennels stored outside of the facility, both of which are dirty. I have received reports that deceased animals were left outside the cold storage area before being properly sealed in cadaver bags and placed into the storage refrigerator. I have submitted before you pictures As proof and evidence of these situations, these pictures were provided to me by a PRAS staff member anonymously who is in fear of retaliation for coming forward. before tonight's meeting i did provide the city clerk with photographs supporting documentation for the council's review and i'm not asking you to simply take my word for this i'm asking you to review the evidence you also have in those packages emails that were sent by shelter staff instructing their staff to turn away animals being surrendered and to ask them to come back in two to three weeks to bring them back. I also ask that you seriously evaluate whether Hampton should continue relying on the regional shelter or explore establishing a Hampton operated municipal animal shelter that could also house the Hampton animal response team. This could provide direct local oversight, greater opportunity and better coordination while focusing Hampton's resources on Hampton's residents and animals.

your time is up thank you thank you all right next speaker is melanie paul

Good evening. I'm sponsoring Mayor Gray City Council. My name is Melanie Paul. I have lived in Hampton 30 years, and I have worked with animal rescue for 45 years. I'm familiar with the PIS shelter. I'm going to ask my interpreter to read this for you so I understand better. I went last week to the shelter. I was looking for a cat. I was told I had to come back later on to make an appointment to see if they had the cat. Because I was told it's dead time and the man texted me. He said because we are a federated operating shelter that's in through nicest animals. They need to make room for other animals coming in there, playing through nice animals that's already there.

At the March HART committee meeting, Roger Isles from the PRAS director was speaking. I asked him why the save rate for the shelter was 68% when the Virginia average for all of our local shelters was 90 or more. You can read his comments in the HART committee meeting notes. I received this information from a National Humane Animal Organization, and I'll be sending this into Ms. Bunting by regular mail. Each time I visit Pratt's shelter, I see both cats and dogs in cages only half or one-fourth full. Hampton has paid $1,155,673 to Pratt's for the fiscal year of 2026. total in the local areas as mentioned before is over 3 million that has been given the shelter has become stagnant and needs to have a total makeover and looked at by this council thank you miss paul next speaker is johnny carroll

Good evening, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, council members and citizenry assembled. My name is Johnny B. Carroll, Jr., and I am proud to be a citizen of the city of Hampton. The reason why I'm here is because I want to introduce the idea of a horse racing track here in the city of Hampton. Now, Kentucky has Churchill Downs. Here in Virginia, we have Colonial Downs. What I'm trying to understand is why Hampton can't have Tidewater Downs. The reason why is because what we have around here is that we have stables here in the city of Hampton and other areas in the region, but they don't have But they don't have an area where they can compete. And as far as materials are concerned, Newport New Shipbuilding builds billion-dollar carriers and submarines. I don't understand why they can't take a few dollars and just make a set of horseshoes. And as far as people are concerned, you can look out there at, what is it, Rosie's? And 24-7 that place is filled. But how come we can't have that same line out there at our horse racing track making money for the city? And that money for the city isn't just going to us. It's going towards the Hampton City school system where the proceeds can go head on and support our school system, among other things. That's all I'm asking for, and I'm hoping that you'll support this idea. Thank you very much, and have a wonderful evening.

Thank you, Ms. Carroll. Next speaker is Teresa Roundy.

Good evening. My name is Teresa Roundy. I'm a resident and business owner in the city of Hampton. And I'm here today, tonight, about Elmerton Cemetery. Now, Elmerton Cemetery, I... There's a group that wanted to get a historical marker placed there and they were told by the city that they had to have the owner's permission. Now there is no owner of record. There is no owner. These older cemeteries plots were sold and if you look in your booklet you'll see actual deeds. Maybe the city attorney can address. When you read the deed, it states that they were sold a certain plot area and that they were responsible for the upkeep. There was no perpetual care. and that they were responsible for marking their particular plot that they were sold and if they did not mark their plot and they happen to uh sell the plot next to them and they encroach over there then that was their problem but uh when you read this like i said i'm not an attorney maybe the city attorney can can um Check that out, but it's like when you buy your house. When the person sells it to you, they're no longer responsible for anything to do with your home. So that's the way these deeds are written. Now in Elmerton, A.W.E. Bassett and his wife Ida personally sold plots in Elmerton, in Elmerton Annex. Then there's Elmerton Cemetery Company and there's trustees that sold in Elmerton. And they're all, the deeds are all the same. They sold it and that's it. And you'll see some other notices there. And then if you look at the map, you'll see the maps, you'll see Elmerton Cemetery on this map. And this one shows that it runs along North King Street and then you'll see Adams Street up. And then the next one, you'll see Elmerton and you'll see it comes right up alongside of Adams Street, which it didn't in the first map. And then in the next map, you'll see Elmerton Cemetery. It's marked as a colored cemetery, but they're square. Now, if you look at the city, what they have currently, there's a big chunk out the front. And the city owns those three plots in the front. Now, I believe that this Argus Place, which is, I guess, listed as a private road, may be Adams. OK. Thank you.

The time is up miss around the thank you. Next speaker is John Rottenberg. I think Mister Rottenberg left. So next speaker is Chris Bowman.

good evening i'm chris bowman mayor city manager city attorney council clerk here to talk about the median uh in in front of the um longley square shopping center where you play some nice fencing and you did it to help our minimize or stop our pedestrians from crossing that section of mercury boulevard and getting injured or killed the the first i'll call it layer of fencing that was very nice uh apology for that Several weeks or a month later, I saw a second level of fencing and was just thinking, why do they need two layers of fencing to prevent these pedestrians from crossing? Seems like an abuse of taxpayers' dollars and unnecessary. Perhaps there's some rationale for that. As you progress down this fencing, it stops at O'Reilly's. We have a very nice crosswalk at Sellandale, which should be able to divert all of those pedestrians to that Sellandale crossing, which has the digital numbers, which helps pedestrians cross it. Why it was stopped at O'Reilly's, I do not, but I recommend you continue it on down and finish the project at the Selindale Crosswalk. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman. Our next speaker is Brenda Marks.

Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, council members, Ms. Bonning, and city attorney. This speech is a request. And I think I want you to understand the request doesn't have anything to do with the school system, but I have to include them in the story to make any sense. I am requesting that you, as the council, work with Ms. Bunning to see that Hampton Social Services adopts a policy that should they receive a CPS complaint involving a child at Hampton City Schools, they request a sister agency do the investigation. I make that request because two and a half years ago I had a similar situation and this year there have been two or three situations that have arisen that there have been CPS investigations involving the school division due to student harm. And hear me and hear me well, I've known Jason Samuels for 14 years. I have no belief whatsoever that he tries to influence anyone whatsoever. But you have the unique situation that Mr. Samuels sits on the school board. He also runs the after school programs for social services. During the course of the investigations I've been aware of, there had been people that work in social services handling the investigation saying they have to be careful what they say and do because there are outside forces at play. I believe the people that are saying that are feeling he's a supervisory person and I don't want to make him mad if I rule a certain way. But the clearest, easiest way to remove the appearance of a conflict of interest is to ask our social service to adopt a policy that should there come a cps complaint involving hampton city schools they ask a sister agency to handle the investigation thank you thank you miss mark's next speaker is aaron weaver

Aaron Weaver I have 3 things tonight first the man had the city code section 9 dash 41 be residents current on approved tax repayment plan should still be able to get repair permits not emergency was repair permits this cannot say the city cannot say fix it while its own ordinance blocks the permit second 3, 1, 1, can still be weaponized Our records show from Freedom of Information Act, 30 plus complaints over several years. Many were closed, unfounded, without a violation. Only three led to citations. 311 should solve problems, not pressure residents until something sticks. Third, I need to talk about how a code enforcement case involving my family was handled. My mother faced three misdemeanor charges over repairs. Our attorney said the courtroom posture of the city attorney was outside the norm. One charge named a front fascia, the trim along the proof line. We replaced it. But then she amended it to say, fascia, right? OK. Then the prosecutor brought in that charge without clearly saying what else was needed, right? Even after that was fixed, the front fascia, what we originally cited, she still pushed for a guilty finding. Then came the gutter charge. The property named in the summits had no gutters. The city's own gutter notice and photographs were a different house. The court and our lawyer had one address. The prosecutor said her copy had another. The judge looked at the document and asked, is this white out? The charge was dismissed. The other two items were fixed and resolved. Where did getting the problem fixed stop being the goal? Because from where I stood and my attorney stood, getting my mother convicted seemed more important than getting the repairs done. I don't know whether this was one person, several people, or a broken process. But if this was one person's attempt to make us stop speaking up, she failed. If anyone else expected the process to silence us, they failed. If I fought like hell for my neighborhood and people I've shown up for across this city, if you think this is going to stop me, it's not. If I fight that hard for others, imagine what I would do for my family. There's no price that I won't pay. I will not be stopped. So, I am making the council and the city manager aware. Amend section 9-41B requires supervisor review repeated unfound 311 complaints. Review how the prosecution and these conflicting court documents were handled. Make sure.

Thank you Mister Weaver next speaker is Joan Weaver.

Joan Weaver, come down the defendant. Let it be said and let it be known to this city council, Ms. Sidnor, go back and tell your department your debacle failed. It shows the incompetence of Hampton City itself. How in the hell are you going to tell me? that I, three misdemeanors, when you were incomplete, I was never included in codes and compliance. And I have your rules, Lee. I have enough to start a book on all inappropriate activities that occurred. Ms. Bunting, I sent you notification. You tried to send me a graph back that did not even provide or address what I said. Let the record show there is nothing any of you can do to make me go away. You're going to answer me, okay? And not you, city council. You all have a voice. Speak. You're not bobbleheads. Miss Snead, Hope. I will give you credit. At least you did answer and start to look into the investigation. The treasurer's department can cause much misery unnecessarily, which it did. Codes and compliance, as I stated, is a joke. You hide under your cloak because you don't think that people will be seen, but I have it here to show you are incompetent. Everything about you. and to show white out does not go on court documents it was a joke to see what your hampton city attorneys did and how you all tried to mess up my name but no you didn't and realize the attributes of an exceptional council karen joan honey weaver make good trouble is here You will respect me, you will respect my neighborhood, and I do have an attorney on file. Roll them so that we can show a pattern of selective enforcement and all the dirty little tactics that you all tried to apply. You don't like this? and you can't hide it. Yes, front page, daily press. I was against those warehouses and you all sit up there and talk about housing. How in the hell can you do that when you set two humongous warehouses in our neighborhood where housing should have been placed? For all on council and you all know who you are, who approved it, you should be ashamed. Thank God for Bowman, New Blood, Brown, you stood up. Carolyn, I hope you won't be any worse, but I want you all to see, think of us. Oh, Hope, you too. Think of us in our community and people, not your slick dress developers, okay? No, no. Look at people first. You would probably put asphalt over your own mother's grave. Thank you.

thank you miss weaver next speaker scott sewell scott sewell all right next speaker is jeannie belgrade

Good evening, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, City Council, City Manager, everyone here present and online. Wow. For the record, my name is Ginny Belgrave, and as the chair of the Hampton Animal Response Team Advisory Committee, I am surprised and I guess we do have a lot of work to do. But I'm here today to first, and before I forget, because I did two city council meetings ago, I want to thank Vice Major Brown for praying for Venezuela, which Venezuela had two double earthquakes, 7.2 and 7.5, and we still have people under the rubbles, and it's been very tragic. And we have had a lot of earthquakes around the world. But thank you so much for your prayers. And then also I'd like to thank whoever approved the landscaping of Hampton. I do appreciate so much seeing all the flowers around. It really, really makes Hampton more beautiful. So whoever approved that, thank you so much. And on that note, that inspires me to write a song. I'm one of those creative people out there as well. And I'm going to put it here. I'm going to play it. It's my song. It's fine. And I'll play until I run out of time, I guess. I hope I'm able to have enough volume here.

Where the blue waves roll Hampton breeze blowing Bringing peace to my soul Fort Monroe standing History in the sand Old Point comfort shining Right here in the land Where the water meets the sky. Where the sunsets paint the harbor gold and bright. From Buckrow Beach to downtown nice. Hampton, Virginia, you're a little piece

And on that note, do I have time? No? Well, thank you so much.

Miss Belgrave, who wrote the song?

I did.

You did?

Yes, sir. It's part of my voice, a little bit modified. But my voice does change when I sing, though. And the music, everything is my own, my whole work.

Very nice.

Thank you.

It was the last speaker and the last song. So city manager, do you want to answer any of the questions, comments, or concerns that were brought up this evening?

I was going to start with Ms. Peabody if she wanted to hear what I had to say about that real quickly. It's up to her. She needs to leave. Ms. Peabody. Yeah. I'm going to go through the items in the order that they came up, grouping the ones that are relevant to one another. I want to thank Ms. Peabody for sharing her observations and the work that she did. I do want to assure you, we are already investigating an electronic permit process that would be more clear. Corporal Kennedy, who runs the special event permit process, has done some investigation and made some recommendations. We're getting pricing on that. So we do look forward to offering a permit option. I'm glad you referenced the special event permit book. I have too heard some complaints recently about some of our process and did find that everything that people said they didn't know is in the permit book, but that doesn't mean that it's easy for people. And to the extent we can make it easier for people, we should strive to do so. So I welcome your suggestions and I'll be getting with my team to look at your suggestions and see what we might do. But I did want to let you know we were already investigating the electronic permit process to make things easier for folks. And then I will address the flock cameras. We talked about this before. I won't go too long into it, but federal and state courts have ruled that the flock camera use is not unconstitutional. State law has further restrictions. We do follow all of those restrictions in Hampton. While we can't provide specific case details because the cases are in the prosecution process, we have many cases, whether they are arson, weapon law violations, property crime apprehensions that have been successfully concluded to the point of being able to make a probable cause arrest and proceed through the prosecution process by using those systems. I want to assure you that the data that is identified in an active investigation is the only data that is kept after the 21 days that are provided by state statute. We purge everything after that period of time unless we have pulled something for an active investigation, which is permitted by the state code. We have processes in place to make sure that officers of the Hampton Police Division do not do what was described that happens in other localities. In terms of accessing the data, it is recorded who goes in. They have to have a purpose to go in. It has to be documented. We review those case files to see why people are going in and how are they using the information. We take the commitment to privacy of our citizens very, very seriously and endeavor to make sure that no one has had unauthorized access. I can assure you that if Chief Weidman found someone to have unauthorized access, they would no longer be employed with the city. He takes that very seriously, as do I. I am not going to sit here and say that it couldn't happen. It obviously has happened elsewhere in the country, but we take very strict procedures and controls to make sure that if someone ever tried to do that, we would catch it and we would deal with it very promptly. So to date, it is our position, Chief Weidman's and myself, that this is a very valuable tool that serves our community and we are not recommending changing it at this time. In terms of the animal control issues, I believe those who spoke probably know this, but because other people may not, I'm going to explain the situation with the regional animal control shelter. Neither the council nor I directly manage that facility. It is run by the City of Newport News. It is done as a regional facility. We didn't choose to do the regional facility initially, to be honest. We used to do all of our sheltering with the Peninsula SPCA. The Peninsula SPCA made a decision many years ago that they wanted to be what's called a no-kill shelter. I admire that. I'm an animal lover. I have three dogs in my family. I've had dogs my entire life. i've seen these pictures they were shared with me they broke my heart but as city manager i cannot directly do anything other than call the newport news city manager which i promptly did and made him aware of my concerns and told him my expectations as a manager for the money that we're paying and how we believe that facility should be run but we're only one of four localities We ended up in that arrangement because the SPCA decided they wanted to be a no-kill shelter, which I understand and appreciate. But a municipality will always, unfortunately, have animals that need to be euthanized. I know you all understand this. But for the rest of the public, I want you to know we don't want to willy-nilly do that, of course. We want to try to get every animal returned to their owner or adopted to someone who will love and care for it. However, there are animals that are vicious and the court orders to be put down, and there are feral cats that are causing problems in neighborhoods and areas that we are requested to remove from those areas. Some people will adopt them and spay, neuter, and release them into a managed cat colony, but many people will not. And if they are not ultimately spayed, neutered, and put into a managed cat colony, they will end up euthanized. And those are the types of animals that the SPCA did not want to handle. And so they put the burden on the localities to build their own shelter. At the time, we did an analysis as to whether it would be cheaper for taxpayers for us to own our own facility or go regional. And every locality opted to go regional because it is far more cost effective for the taxpayer to have a regional shelter. but only one locality can be responsible for the employees and the operation on a day-to-day basis. And that locality that stepped up to do that was Newport News. So I want to assure you that I have my assistant city manager, Jason Mitchell, have been sharing any concerns we hear with the Newport News City Manager. He's met with the Deputy City Manager. They have done some prize inspections. Since the March incident that you described, I do know the State Veterinary Office went down and did an unannounced inspection on March 18th, and there were no violations on that date. And I can share that paperwork with you if you do not have it already. My understanding is that surprise inspections are occurring on a regular basis, not necessarily from the state, but from local folks here. But neither the council nor I can do anything with the current arrangement. It was posited that perhaps we go make our own I will tell you that would not relieve us of the debt responsibility we have for the new building. And as city manager, I worry about building another facility that would be more expensive for the reasons I described and have to continue to pay debt on a building that we built and made a commitment to fund until those bonds are paid off. So we're in a very difficult position. But I want you all to know that as an animal over myself, I will do everything I can within my power as a city manager to advocate for the animals of our community and continue to keep the pressure on Newport News to do the right thing. I hate to say it, but that's about the extent of what I can do. But I want you to know you've been heard and we will not let up on making sure that we communicate a clear and consistent message. On turning animals away, I gotta confess I'm a little mixed on this because what they have told us is that if someone insists that they cannot take the animal home, they will take them. They have also said they encourage people not to leave them there. And the reason why they do that is when they are at capacity, if they take another animal in, one that could be adoptable may be put down. And they don't want that animal that could be adopted to be put down. I have to take their word for it. That is what they tell us. When you, I mean you broadly as Hampton citizens, some of you in the audience have spoken with me directly, Ms. Seeley and I know each other very well. every time I hear about someone being turned away we make an inquiry and they say that it was suggestive and if people go home with them that's fine if they insist they cannot take them home they will take them and looking at the language you provided tonight it does seem much more directive to send them home than what I had been led to believe and I've already shared it with Mr. Mitchell so we can follow up on this document with them tomorrow but it does say in here we understand sometimes waiting may not be possible and that is what they were telling us that they wanted to encourage people if they could keep them to keep them so that an adoptable animal would not be put down and I don't think any of us want an adoptable animal to be put down the real question is Do they have more capacity at the facility than what they're admitting or not? But I hope we would all agree if every cage was filled and taking in another animal meant an adoptable animal would be put down that we would encourage people to try to work with that. But we will do again the best that we can in terms of investigating that because none of us want, you're absolutely right. If someone wants to turn in an animal and they are told and turned away, they're probably going to end up on the street. AND THAT ANIMAL MAY BE KILLED, THAT ANIMAL MAY NEVER BE REUNITED, THAT ANIMAL MAY BE REPRODUCING AND CAUSING MORE PROBLEMS. SO I UNDERSTAND FULLY WHAT YOU ALL ARE ASKING US, BUT I HAVE TO BE CLEAR, I DON'T HAVE THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY. IF WE MANAGED THE REGIONAL SHELTER, I WOULD HAVE MORE AUTHORITY, BUT WE DON'T. TURNING NEXT TO, I'M SORRY, I HAVE TO GET BACK TO MY NOTES. THE NEXT ITEM THAT CAME UP IN ORDER, was the Versability Resources Gal and they left, but I do want to commend Versability. They do many great things. for people of differing abilities in our community, and if you are so inclined, I would encourage you to support their endeavor. Mr. Carroll brought up the racetrack, and I understand where he's coming from. It makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the state regulates what localities can have certain types of facilities, including racetracks. That doesn't mean we can't go ask them to give us permission, but currently we would not have the authority to do that on our own. I do want to assure you, though, because you mentioned Rosie's, that we get quite a bit of revenue from that off-track betting facility that helps our city budget and does go to support the schools indirectly through our larger overall contribution. The General Assembly recently changed the formula for that, and we this year are expected to get roughly $6 million off of the off-track betting facility that Rosie's runs. So we are getting substantial revenue without having a track in our community. your point i understand is if we had a track we might get even more so i understand where you're coming from and appreciate the suggestion but i wanted to let you know because that's a regulated activity by the state we would have to go say mother may i and see if they will allow us to miss roundy thank you for the information that you've put together you always do such great information i want to assure you We understand the legal status of this cemetery is such that there is no owner we can locate. However, it is a private property that we don't control directly as a private property. We had suggested that perhaps one of the ways to resolve the signage might be to use our right of way, which we do control. There are certain legal and regulatory requirements around using a right-of-way. And so we were working with the nonprofit, I think you were referencing, and they found the process rather complicated. So I'm currently working with staff to see if we can streamline that process for something like this, but there are some legal regulatory requirements we cannot overlook. But we are working to see what we might do to facilitate that because we understand the public interest of getting proper signage for Elmerton. And I think the cleanest route is the right-of-way because then we're not on property that is not our own. In terms of the fencing on Mercury Boulevard that Mr. Bowman brought up, the reason actually when you first saw it installed with one single fence going down the middle and the two little strips that look like sidewalks but weren't sidewalks, that was not what had been envisioned. Because what happens if you have the middle strip in the middle are the people, the whole point of the fencing by the way was to keep people from crossing in the middle and getting hit by cars. I can't tell you how many. It's such a high number of people who've been hit and or killed. And I have felt bad not only for people who've been injured or killed, but also for the drivers that accidentally did it because many times these accidents occur at night when it's dark and people are just rushing across at the last minute, maybe not even in reflective, you know, like we were trained when I was growing up. If you're out at night on walking or biking, you wear reflective clothing. But people don't do that these days. And so the drivers who hit these folks and injure or kill them have to live with that forever. So we wanted to try to do something and applied for a VDOT safety grant. Still taxpayer money, but the project was funded by the state. And when it got installed initially, basically what was happening were people were jumping over in the middle, which is even more dangerous, correct? What we had always envisioned was that it would be two fences. And the reason why you have two fences is you still want to be able to keep the green, be able to mow the green, and the strip on the outside is really where you can't fit a mower or an edger safely. So the two fences provide that area in the middle. It's very difficult. I'm not saying someone who's athletic couldn't do it, but it's very difficult to hop over one, land in the middle, hop over the other. What we're really trying to do is to make it and force people to go to the crosswalks. You're absolutely correct. The state did not fund the end caps. We are looking at how we might do the end caps through a second grant round. and or bring to the council you know what it would cost to do those end caps because people are really stubborn about saving a few minutes not going all the way to the crosswalk there are still some people doing it we have however i'm pleased to say significantly reduced the number of people that are having injuries um so far so realize it's not the most attractive thing but at the end of the day we want to save lives and also save some driver the the horrible guilt of having to live with having hurt someone through no intention of their own mr weaver knows this but for the rest of folks he did share his concerns with me after the last council meeting i immediately brought to council The issue around the permit issuance, because it had never occurred to me that people might be in a catch-22. Both he and Ms. Weaver brought that up. And I suggested that we might look at something to fix that. And we are looking at that, as well as the other issues that you raised. I immediately asked for more information from the parties that had been involved, from the city attorney's office, because of what you represented about the whiteout and other things that happened in court, as well as what happened with the codes staff. and i because of my schedule their schedule we have not yet met but as soon as i meet with them and get the explanations and get to the bottom of things i had indicated to mr weaver i would absolutely follow back up with him and miss weaver and that's still my full intention but for a variety of reasons that has that meeting has just not happened on my calendar yet I never really thought about 311 being weaponized with repeat phone calls perhaps, just being used to cause someone trouble. And that's an interesting point of view, and I will do some research about how often that happens as we're able to have time. This is not something I'm going to be able to do tomorrow, but I do take your point, and I think it's worthy of us doing some research to see if that happens often and what we might do to curb that, whether it happens right frequently or irregularly it's not fair to someone to have that happen to them but I want to be abundantly clear neither myself nor anyone up here is trying to silence someone from speaking we love when people speak up with passion for their causes and their neighborhoods and and whatever else that we may disagree right we there may be a decision to go one way that you disagree with or vice versa but that doesn't mean we can't love and appreciate this fact that citizens care enough to be involved and i've said that to both mr we to aaron mr weaver and to miss joan weaver as well and i will continue to be fond of both of them no matter how many comes up they come up here and get mad at me or anybody else So it is common practice, and I understand they don't like this, and this is some larger policy thing to think about, but when people don't comply with correcting zoning violations, the standard procedure, not just against Ms. Weaver, but against anyone who does not rectify a code's violation, is to issue a summons and go to court. And that's why I say I have no doubt in my mind that this was done. I do not believe that this was done to silence anybody. I realize you all believe that, but we issue summons like that and go to court like that for literally thousands of cases. And that is intended to ensure that we correct zoning violations or building code violations, grass and weed violations that are brought to our attention. And then finally, as was already referenced, I want to thank Ms. Belgrade for the beautiful song. You learn something new about people all the time, and I had no idea you had such beautiful talent. You did mention the plants, and I will just take a moment. You did not say this, but it reminded me that I got an email earlier this week from our public works director. who said he, during his normal Facebook check to make sure that there weren't any things that he should, in his department, should be taking care of, he saw there were concerns about the flowers in downtown Queensway, and he wanted to assure me that they do water those three times per week, if not more. depending upon weather conditions, the plants that were in question had actually been watered that afternoon. We didn't know when the post had been put up. But because of the intense heat we've had, some of these plants have been not looking as perky as we want to. But he did assure me that this was after a hot weekend. The hot weekend probably had resulted in the plants wilting so much, but they were confident that they would bounce right back. just so you know all of you know i don't know who posted that but you all know that we want our city to look beautiful i appreciate miss belgrave recognizing that and we do include a plan to maintain them sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate with us just as we heard some complaints about some grass on mercury boulevard being too high and i don't know about you all but i've had to have My lawn mowed more frequently with all the intense rain So if you ever see a condition like that and you want to know what are we doing? Don't hesitate to ask we will give you the story behind it again. You may not like the answer It might be we can only afford to mow once a week and you might think we need to be mowing twice a week But I'll at least be transparent with the answer. Thank you. Mr. Mayor and council members for the opportunity to address the concerns Okay.

Thank you for that city manager. We still have one item of business to take care of and You know, I think city clerk was going to read that item.

Your last item before the appointments this evening is item number 1926-0260. It is the requested approval of the strategic plan.

Mr. Mayor and Council Members, Brian Popio, our Deputy City Manager, is going to do this brief update. As you know, we've been going through a strategic plan process update for quite a while. We've largely been focused on getting the strategic plan issues and the high-level goals and objectives done, and we're ready to have you adopt that. We presented last month, and Mayor Gray suggested that we strengthen some language around data being used for all the initiatives, and we have some language to suggest to you this evening. I do want to note, because some people have expressed interest about um could they be a part of the implementation groups because i've made reference before that once we adopt this the real work begins in terms of working with our citizens and our community stakeholders and partners about how do we make it a reality and if you have not been called yet because you volunteered it's not that it's not going to happen we just weren't ready to begin with implementation until the council adopts it tonight so with that i introduced mr deprofio

All right, thank you. Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, members of council, City Manager Bunting, and City Attorney Sidnor, thank you very much. I'm going to go through this pretty briefly today. We've done a couple previous extensive presentations, but as As the city manager had mentioned, one of the key things that we try to do when we update our strategic plan is try to get as broad-based community input into that process as possible. Because this is a plan that's really a priority, a set of priorities for the entire community. We'll be working with the community to get these priorities implemented. And so it's very important that we get a lot of public engagement on the front end so that the plan really reflects what the priorities are for our community. And so we've, as the city manager mentioned, we've been working on that for an extended period of time. And One of the things that we've done is we've set the foundation for the plan, the city's vision, mission, and values. And this has been in place pretty early on when we started this process. And as we've gone through and gotten public input, the public input that we've gotten has continued to confirm that this is the right vision, this is the right mission, and these are the right values for our community. THE OTHER PART OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE PLAN IS OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITY AREAS. AGAIN, THESE WERE SET VERY EARLY IN THE PROCESS. UNDER EACH OF THESE AREAS IS WHERE, AS THE SEAM MANAGER MENTIONED, WE DEVELOPED WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS, YOU KNOW, DOING OUTREACH TO THE COMMUNITY. WE DEVELOPED VARIOUS GOALS AND STRATEGIES. AND THAT'S BASICALLY WHAT WE'RE ASKING COUNCIL TO APPROVE TONIGHT IS THOSE GOALS AND STRATEGIES AS WELL AS THE MISSION, VISION, AND VALUES that I had on the previous slide. We're asking council to adopt that this evening. As the city manager mentioned, when we made the last presentation to council back in July where we basically brought forward some additional changes from additional public input that the council had requested, one of the request that was made by the council was to really focus on making sure that the plan is data driven and the strategies are data driven. So we looked at the plan and we really strengthened one of the strategies in the excellence in government area, strategy 4.6. And we changed that to read, build a culture of data informed decision making by using data and performance metrics to identify trends and emerging issues, inform priorities, track progress, share results publicly, and refine strategies for greater impact. So this will be an iterative process where as we review the data, we'll go back and we'll strengthen those strategies and make sure that we're as effective as we can be. And that's the only change to the plan since we presented it last week. The next steps, as the city manager had mentioned this evening, we're asking council to adopt that plan. And also, as the city manager mentioned, after we adopt the plan, we're going to be working, again, more with the community and the stakeholder groups that we've been working with through this part of the process. We're going to work with them in developing the implementation plan and setting performance measures so that we can go ahead and move these strategies and goals forward. With that, that concludes my presentation. I do want to take the opportunity to thank the council as well as the citizens and the businesses and staff that really put a lot of effort into this plan. As I had mentioned earlier and as city manager mentioned, this is a community-based plan wanted to be reflective of the community's priorities and what they want to see us focus on over the next 5 plus years and make sure that that that we move the community in that direction and so we greatly appreciate all the hard work that's gone into the plan and I do want to take an opportunity to thank everybody who's been part of the process but that I'd be happy to take any questions thank you any questions for Mister the profile.

All right, well it was a long process and so I think we're finally finally their city manager, I don't know if there's an opportunity to you know not once we approve this to perhaps get the group back together that worked on this over how long 2 years or. two years um you know maybe for a little celebration uh and and allow us to be able to thank them uh personally for the time they invested in in the strategic plan development i think that's a great idea we'll work on that and that will also be a good opportunity for us to you know re-extend the invitation to those who want to continue to work with us on the implementation

I know we got names during the last community process, and I still have those names, and those people will be contacted. And some council people also sent me names, so I have those as well. But there may be other people who, when we thank them and re-engage them, will want to continue with us. And I think it's a great idea.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. We need a motion and a second to approve the strategic plan.

Mr. Mayor, I move that city council approve the 2026 strategic plan update as presented in the agenda package.

It's like it. All right we have a motion to second is any further discussion. All right there being a man clerk will you call the roll. I'm clear is gone.

If we could do it and appear I'm glad to do it for you if that's OK at the court at the city attorney considers it acceptable. We can record the vote. Let's get let's give her a second to come back OK in the meantime you I missed 2 items I mentioned that to the mayor and it was because.

I want me to read the motion required for the appointments.

We're voting on the strategic plan.

Oh, I'm so sorry. The motion required is to approve the 2026 strategic plan update as presented in the agenda packet. The motion was already made.

And we have a motion and a second, yes.

Who made the motion, please? And the second? Councilman Bowman? Aye. Vice Mayor Brown? Aye. Councilwoman Campbell? Aye. Councilwoman Farabee? Aye. Councilwoman Harper? Aye. Councilwoman Mugler? Aye. Mayor Gray? Aye. I. OK, and there's one final motion. I understand that all of the appointments this evening are going to be deferred. So the motion required would be to defer items 20 through 24 to September 9th, 2026. So moved. Second. I'm sorry, the motion was Councilwoman Campbell. Fair. Councilwoman Fair be second. Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown. Aye. Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mugler. Aye. Mayor Gray.

Aye. Thanks city manager had 2 more items you wanted to address from the public.

I did Mister mayor I had taken a lot of notes and when I was going back over the my inadvertently skip 2 of them so thank you for allowing me to to close the loop on the other 2 miss Garcia had mentioned fire station 3 as a possible facility is a transitional home with services for homeless veterans and others and mentioned needing to provide uh response of interest by august 31st not really sure what she was referencing but we have not put that process out yet um you may recall that when we met with council about how we were going to proceed with the reuse the adopted master plan had actually called for the facility to come down and be used as community space we had heard from historical interests that maybe we could reuse the facility and council had not yet decided which because we were to conduct community engagement we have found historically that the best community engagement happens in the fall. And so it may have been referenced in the plan we were trying to do it by August 31st, if you gave us clear direction, but because the direction was to do some further community engagement, which is planned for the fall, we have not yet issued a request for interest or proposal. so neither miss garcia nor anybody else who may be interested in proposing a reuse of the fire station have missed a deadline or in danger of missing a deadline on august 31st we will be very clear at the council meeting when we're ready to roll that out after we get that community feedback And then Ms. Marks made a request that we issue a directive to social services or adopt a policy that if they receive a CPS complaint involving Hampton city schools, that they get another agency to investigate it. And it sounded as if that was largely because of Mr. Samuel's position, even though she doesn't think Mr. Samuels would do anything wrong, but because of the perceived conflict of interest with him being on the school board. Mr. Samuels has taken a position elsewhere with the city. He is no longer in charge of before and after school programs or in the Department of Human Services. So I don't know if that resolves your concern or not, but I just wanted to make that clear since I don't think you were aware of that. Very recent. I'm not supposed to do this, but I heard. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the opportunity to address those other two concerns.

All right. Lost my paperwork here. Okay, so before I go, I want to acknowledge our commissioner revenue, Mr. Michael Harris, sitting in the audience. Thank you for joining us this evening. And with that, are there any other reports by the city manager, city council, staff, or committees? Any items of new business? All right, there being none, would anybody like to make a motion to extend the meeting to 11 o'clock, past 11 o'clock? All right, if not, we are adjourned.