City Council Legislative Session - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the Hampton City Council legislative session. Mayor, Madam Clerk, will you call the roll, please?

Councilman Bowman.

Correct.

Vice Mayor Brown. Here. Councilwoman Campbell. Present. Councilwoman Farabee. Present. Councilwoman Harper. Present. Councilwoman Muggler. Present. Mayor Gray.

Present. And the invocation this evening will be given by Councilwoman Carolyn Campbell, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. So would you please stand and join us for both?

Precious Lord, we gather today as representatives of this community, asking for your guidance, wisdom, and blessings upon this city council meeting. Direct our deliberations, grant us clarity of mind and unity of purpose so the decisions we make may serve the highest good of all our residents. As we gather this week, we also pause to remember the profound events of September 11, 2001. We carry in our hearts the solemn memory of the innocent lives lost, and we honor the incredible bravery of the first responders, the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and ordinary citizens who risked everything to save others. We ask that you continue to bring comfort to the families who still carry the grief of that day, and we pray for the continued health and safety of our own local first responders who protect our community every day. We thank you for the dedicated service of our leaders like our retiring police chief, and we express gratitude for public servants who dedicate their lives to community safety. May their selflessness inspire our own public service. Let those same virtues guide our discussion tonight. May our work continue to build a safer, stronger, and more compassionate city. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

So Councilwoman Campbell mentioned in her opening prayer the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. and um while we do ask that you keep all of those families firefighters and all those whose lives were lost in and families that have been affected and your prayers uh this friday we will have a special ceremony at the hampton roads convention center uh at 10 o'clock a.m uh with military police fire will all be there as a part of this uh commemoration and so we ask that you would please uh come out and uh show you support for those uh families in new york that are still struggling with that as well as many of our first responders in our community who may have responded to the uh the incident itself so 10 o'clock at the hampton roads convention center there is a way to register for that on the city's website so we know how many may be coming but that is not uh it's not that we're going to not let you in if you don't register so uh Please do come out on Friday at 10 a.m. With that, I'm going to ask the clerk to read the protocol for the consent agenda.

The Consent Agenda consists of routine, non-controversial items requiring Council's approval. These items are typically adopted with one motion and without discussion. Tonight, your Consent Agenda approves the Municipal Naming Policy. It amends the FY2027 Council-approved budget to approve additional unanticipated state and federal funds in the amount of $10,242 to be used for the purchase of books and other library materials. It approves the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board's FY26 and 27 performance contract and supplemental documents. It approves an advance of approximately $6.2 million, which will be reimbursed from bond proceeds or other obligations from the city's general fund unassigned fund balance to the fy 27 capital budget capital projects fund for hampton city schools maintenance and technology investments which allows work to proceed during the most opportune time it amends three sections of chapter two of the code of the city of hampton regarding special event permits and it approves the minutes of the june 10 2026 city council work session i need a motion in a second mr mayor move approval of tonight's consent agenda second

Aye.

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

Aye. I have a several proclamations that I want to read this evening and the first one is for recognizing September as a suicide prevention month in the city of Hampton and I know we have members of our CSB here. I'm going to call them up in just a few minutes, but we have some other organizations here for this this moment as well, including representatives from the Sarah Michelle Peterson Foundation. uh who came over from norfolk so thank you for being here this evening whereas the national alliance of mental illness recognizes that september is suicide prevention month and whereas according to nami one of the 20 u.s one in 20 u.s adults has serious thoughts about suicide each year and about one person dies by suicide in the u.s every 11 minutes whereas the Hampton-Newport News Suicide Prevention Task Force unites key community partners to coordinate efforts to educate the community on the warning signs that someone may be thinking of suicide, promote safety and planning, and develop skills to support the others. And whereas Suicide Prevention Month is a time to raise awareness, spread hope, and spark action about this urgent mental health issue. And whereas Suicide Prevention Month is a fitting time to remember that talking about suicide is not harmful and that simple conversation can be the turning point in an individual's life. whereas in 1998 and not i'm sorry and whereas the 988 suicide in crisis i'm sorry i'm reading that wrong the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline is available to virginians 24 hours a day seven days a week to provide free and confidential emotional support and crisis intervention and whereas it is vital that we join forces to focus their attention on the problem of suicide in the City of Hampton, on the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation. Now, therefore, I, James A. Gray, Junior Mayor, on behalf of the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby recognize the month of suicide on September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Month in the City of Hampton, Virginia, And I call upon all citizens to join me in observing this month, acknowledging the importance of suicide prevention and supporting our fellow citizens during their time of need. And witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Hampton, Virginia to be affixed this night, the day of September 2026. And I want to mention too that I know when you look at a lot of numbers, a lot of times we focus a lot of our efforts with young people who are dying by gun violence in our community, that's what draws a lot of attention. It's what the news reports every night. It's what's on people's minds. It's what they write us about. But what happens behind the scene is that suicide is even a greater killer of our young people than the gun violence that's occurring on our streets. And so I hope we will take this month, Suicide Prevention Month, to give some thought that we need to do more in terms of preventing that type of gun violence in our community as well and see if we can save some of our young people from a tragic ending and hopefully give them some hope that they need to, you know, just be productive and enjoy all the things that life has to offer to them. So I'm going to ask the... members of our CSB doctor that the Cunningham executive director to come up and join us and anyone that she has a vote with her as part of her staff. I'm going to ask Mister Mister show Peterson and Mister Eric Peterson from the Sarah Michelle Peterson Foundation to come up and join us as well and I will present this and for my council members will join me down front. We can all present this together. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

OK and the next proclamation I have is in recognition of international week of the death in the city of Hampton and this was a proclamation why really learn something new and I want to thank miss Melanie Paul who wrote the proclamation for providing content that we needed to do it want to thank her for doing that but The information was very formative about people who are deaf and how the terminology that we use for people who are deaf in different situations. But I want to share that with you because some things you may have known. We have with us this evening members of our Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities. We also have with us this evening members from the former Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind who are part of a citywide initiative to turn a park area of 10 acres on the former school site into a city amenity that all can enjoy, and they are actively involved in that. So, I want to read this in recognition of International Week of Deaf in the City of Hampton, Virginia, whereas approximately 863,000 deaf, deaf-blind, and hearing-impaired individuals reside in Virginia, and whereas deaf, deaf-blind, and hearing-impaired residents contribute to the Commonwealth's resources and enrich Virginia through their diverse heritage, language, work ethic, and culture. And whereas Virginia is enriched by the diverse heritage, language, work ethic, and culture of the deaf and deaf individuals, and recognizing that capitalized deaf generally refers to individuals who identify with the deaf community and its shared language, culture, experiences, while the lower case deaf generally refers to the experience of hearing loss and may include individuals who identify most closely with hearing community and or were not born deaf but became deaf or hearing impaired later in life. And whereas the American Sign Language is the first language of many deaf Virginians and is central to the family communications and the cultural connections for thousands of residents, an increasing public awareness of ASL and signing exact English helps to break down communication barriers and foster stronger relationships among both hearing and non-hearing residents. And whereas the Virginia Department of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, located in Richmond, Virginia, provides services to ensure that the deaf, deaf and hard of hearing citizens of the Commonwealth may fully participate in programs, services, and opportunities throughout the Commonwealth, And whereas the International Week of the Deaf is an opportunity to provide and promote equal access to opportunities for both children and adults who are deaf or deaf and blind or hearing impaired and to foster awareness of programs and services available to them. So now, therefore, I, James A. Gray, Jr., Mayor, on behalf of the City Council of the City of Hampton, Virginia, do hereby recognize September 21st through the 26th as International Week of the Deaf in the City of Hampton, Virginia, and encouraging all residents to promote greater awareness, understanding, inclusion, and accessibility for individuals who are deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, and to celebrate their many contributions to our community. And witness whereof our hearing to set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Hampton, Virginia to be fixed this 9th day of September, 2026. Signed, James J. Gray, Mayor. So I'm going to ask members of the Virginia Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities, uh... people from the junior school project to uh... join us down front for the presentation

Okay, back to you. I'm gonna slow down. There we go.

All right, right here, please, right here.

Right here.

All right, I'm going to ask the clerk to read the 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 thank you your first public hearing this evening is on item number 7 26-0271 it's cdbg and home 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report caper review okay

And the city manager burning is on vacation this week. So deputy city manager Brian the profile is filling in so Brian would you introduce the first night.

thank you um tonight the uh item number seven on the agenda is um the cdbg and home 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report as a recipient as a recipient of the cdbg and home funds from the u.s department of housing and urban development each year the city is required to hold a public hearing on the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report and present it to council This report covers how the funds were used during the prior fiscal year. This year's report covers the period from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. The report has been made available for public comment, which closes today. And the report is required to be submitted to HUD by September 30th. The city's chief neighborhood development specialist, Travis Rash, is here this evening to present the report for council's consideration.

mr rash you've uh moved up now you're the chief uh so chief chief rash please proceed mayor i'm whatever you'd like me to be good evening honorable mayor gray vice mayor brown members of council and deputy city manager deproprio my name is travis rash and i'm here to present on the federal fiscal year program year 2025 to 2026 consolidated annual performance evaluation report or caper for short Just some basics about the CAPER itself. The CAPER is part of our five-year consolidated plan process. We passed a consolidated plan for federal fiscal year 2025 through federal fiscal year 2029 last year. And as part of that consolidated plan, that included the 2025 annual action plan, which essentially serves as a budget for how we intend to spend these dollars. This caper serves as an evaluation of the performance of the 2025 annual action plan. The time frame in question for this particular program year is from July 1st of 2025 through June 30th of 2026. Little bit of background about the programs that were evaluated. The first program in question is the Community Development Block Grant Program. This program is designed to create viable urban environments and communities by providing decent housing, suitable living environments, or to expand economic opportunities. activities must meet one of three national objectives they must benefit low to moderate income individuals or families they must aid in the preventions of slums and blight or they must meet an urgent need a great example of this would be something like a presidentially declared natural disaster it's a little bit less common but it is very important to note that 70 percent of the funds total must be used for the purpose of benefiting low to moderate income individuals The second program that was evaluated is our Home Investment Partnerships Program. This one's a little bit different from the Community Development Block Grant Program. It is explicitly designed to address housing needs by increasing the supply of high quality affordable housing options to low income households, to expand the capacity of our nonprofit and community housing development organization partners, to strengthen our own internal capacity as a local government to address housing needs, and to leverage the private sector participation. It's important to note that we like to use these two funding sources together, HOME and CDBG. When we leverage those funds together, we actually have a larger impact on the housing space. It's also important to note that 15% of HOME funds are set aside explicitly for those community housing development organization partners. In this particular case, our CHOTO is Habitat for Humanity. For council's reference, we included the 2026 HUD income limits. HUD splits up jurisdictions into MSAs or metro statistical areas. Our MSA is called the Virginia Beach Norfolk MSA. It actually includes nine different cities and seven counties. As far as HUD's concerned, it's a relatively large metro statistical area. And the regional median family income that was identified for this particular geographic area was $107,700 for a family of four. When you adjust this amount down to 80% of the median family income, that's the $86,150 amount that you see bolded on the line mark number four. And then that's adjusted by household size over on the left in this chart. To comply with codified federal regulations and our own citizen participation plan, the Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report required a 15-day public comment period. This public comment period began on August 25th of 2026 and it will end today. The CAPER was available for review online at all Hampton Public Libraries in the City Hall here downstairs and in the lobby of the Community Development Department. A public hearing will be held tonight after this presentation. Any public comments that we receive will be not only included with the CAPER itself but will also be used to help us develop the annual action plan for next year. On the screen, you can see some of the HUD allocations that we received for this program last year. We received a total of $1,386,643. For our community development block grant funds, we received $897,498. And we also received just over $200 of program income. For our home investment partnership program, we received $489,145 and just over $80,000 of program income. One thing I'm very excited about were the outcomes, the accomplishments that we were able to achieve with these programs this particular year. For housing services, for example, housing services are things such as housing counseling, financial counseling, home maintenance and repair courses offered by the housing authority to our households that are eligible. We anticipated in our annual action plan, we set a goal of 21 households and we served 43. For our housing programs, these are our programs such as weatherization or ramp accessibility modifications. In our annual action plan, we anticipated nine households being served and we served 13 total. For code enforcement, this covers our rental inspection program. We anticipated performing 1,200 inspections. We performed 1,621 total. the home activity accomplishments for the program year 2025 for homeowner rehabilitation these are modifications that are designed to improve the habitability of our eligible owner occupied homes in the city of hampton we anticipated doing four home rehabs we performed seven For home buyer assistance, we anticipated serving six households. We served 11. And then for community housing development organizations, we assisted in the sponsoring of two housing units and we met that goal. For all of the goals that we set out for ourselves with the annual action plan last year, we met or exceeded each one. This is a rundown of the direct financial assistance summary for some of those larger programs, housing programs, for example. What was budgeted over the 2025 program year? $179,507 plus that program income. We expense $256,731.13. For homeowner rehabilitation, we budgeted $191,000 and $182,326 was expensed over the course of the program year. And then for home buyer assistance, we budgeted $176,145 plus the program income, and we expensed $496,220. You'll notice that the two of the amounts in the expense column are higher than the budgeted amounts. That is because we are using unexpensed funds from previous program years 2020 through 2024 and using up that money as efficiently as meaningfully possible. Critical Repair Fast Track, this is a city-funded program that we use in tandem with the Community Development Block Grant and Home Dollars. With this funding, we served an additional 38 households. 78 repairs were performed on those households. Common repairs that we see under this program would be things like roofing, water heaters, electric, plumbing, HVAC, items that are necessary to achieve habitability in that house. We spent $580,396 on this particular program. At the most recent examination, I believe we have $535,000 remaining for this program. It's also important to note that on top of what we provided with the Community Development Block Grant funds in terms of housing services, the Housing Authority was able to serve an additional 180 households with additional sources. Just wanted to visualize the impact for everybody. The home that's on the screen over to the left is one of our home rehab houses. A lot of great work was done to this particular house. It received a new roof, new HVAC system, new vinyl siding. It received new foundation vents, a paint, and more. Lots of great work done on that house. then over on the right you can see one of our ramp houses this is a tub to shower conversion and you can also see the added grab bars for improved accessibility and aging in place outcomes These are some of the key CAPER events that took place over the course of this process. Again, our public comment period opened on August 25 of this year. The public hearing will be held tonight. After this presentation and after the public hearing, we are seeking approval to submit the CAPER draft to HUD no later than the September 30 deadline. I stand by, happy to answer any questions, as well as a colleague from the Housing Authority.

questions comments from council members all right there are none this item requires a public hearing so we're going to open a public hearing there's no one signed up to speak on this item so we will close the public hearing and we need a motion and a second mr mayor

I move the City Council direct staff to incorporate any public comments received and to finalize the 2025 2026 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report for its for submission to the hood.

We have a motion to second is in the pro discussion. Okay, there being a man put the call wrote.

Councilman Bowman? Aye. Vice Mayor Brown?

Aye.

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

Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Chief.

Item number eight on your agenda is 26-0279. It is a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a purchase and development agreement with Bonaventure Development LLC for the sale and development of city-owned property in the Coliseum Central area.

all right uh mr profio you want to introduce this item yes sir um the city was approached um in several months ago by the bonaventure development llc requesting to purchase four acres of city-owned property near the h2o development in the coliseum central district Basically, what this development would do is it would expand the Pinnacle Apartments in effect, which this property is located right next to, and this development group does own the Pinnacle Apartments. City staff has been working with Bonaventure on the purchase and development agreement for the sale and development of this property, and we are recommending council approve that this evening, and the city's chief

um officer for community and economic development mr leonard sledge is here this evening to present this item leonard thank you call your chief too mr sledge thank you mayor gray distinguished members of hampton city council deputy city manager the profio city attorney sydnor madam clerk glass good evening my name is leonard sledge i have the privilege of serving as the chief officer for community and economic development for the city of hampton virginia before i proceed i'd be remiss if i did not acknowledge nell ford deputy city attorney who assisted us with the legal work for this project and also the negotiation of the development agreement and her assistance was greatly appreciated so thank you now And so key points in terms of this project, this development agreement, it will be between the City of Hampton, Virginia and Bonaventure Development LLC to sell approximately four acres of property in Coliseum Central across the street from the Hampton Roads Convention Center to develop between 100 to 132 new multifamily residential units. The minimum capital investment for this project as detailed in the development agreement is $20.3 million. The project is effectively phase two of the successful Pinnacle development, which was developed as a part of the original H2O community in Coliseum Central. The city, we are selling the property, the four acres for $1.7 million. And that is also detailed in the development agreement. And the developer is responsible for all required onsite and offsite infrastructure improvements that are required for the successful completion of the project. closing on the property is contingent on design review approval zoning approvals and evidence of financing to complete the project so in other words before we physically or actually sell the property they have to complete all of those items in a checklist manner The city has also repurchased rights to the property if the developer does not submit the site plan or proceed with construction as outlined in the development agreement. The outside date for the developer to close on the acquisition of the property is March 30th, 2027. And the outside date for the entire project to be complete is 22 months from obtaining site plan approval. And in terms of the who, Bonaventure, a gentleman by the name of Dwight Dutton, who I've had the pleasure of interacting and working with for several years on projects as a founder, CEO, and CIO. While Mr. Dutton is not here tonight, we do have a representative from Bonaventure Development who is here to help answer any questions that may come from City Council. The company was founded in 1999. They're headquartered in Northern Virginia, and they manage over $2.3 billion in real estate transactions, 30 communities, and over 9,700 multifamily units, many of which are in the Hampton Roads region. Again, our favorite is the Pinnacle Development in Coliseum Central, which was developed in 2016 and consists of 296 apartment units. And so this map shows the crossroads area as we refer to this area in Coliseum Central. The pen drop is the four acre site. that is in the development agreement, LRSN's 7000147 and 700165, and also an unimproved section of Barrack Street. Prior to the redevelopment of this area, these were single-family homes, and Barrack Street was an improved street. It has been abandoned, what we refer to as abandoned, and the infrastructure there abandoned in place, and a part of this four-acre assemblage for Bonaventure to move forward with this project. the current assessed value of the four acres is approximately 296 700 and again this is the redevelopment of i'm sorry this is the redevelopment project for phase two of pinnacle apartments excuse me Zooming in a little more, you see the proximity to the existing Pinnacle Apartments and then the H2O townhouses that are also there. What you would see on the far right, this map doesn't include the latest imagery, but on the far right are the new Coliseum townhomes. We see the Hampton Roads Convention Center, the Hampton Coliseum and Interstate 64 and the interchange for Interstate 664. This zeroes in on the site a little more so that you can see it in proximity to Convention Center Boulevard. And this is a conceptual site plan for the project, which we have worked on with the developer in concert with our team from the Community Development Department. You'll note it is a single building project. It has all of the parking on site. It does have its own stormwater management feature on site. There is planned spaces for accessible parking, bicycle parking, indoor and outdoor amenities as well. And also on this concept plan, you see the breakdown for the proposed units. in terms of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units. This is an elevation of the project to show the architectural features that would move forward, and it's been our intent as we've worked through this project is for this particular new building to mimic the look and feel of the existing Pinnacle Apartments in Coliseum Central, which you can see depicted in these images. These are actual images from the Pinnacle in Coliseum Central. And so our recommendation tonight is for city council to approve the resolution to authorize the city manager to enter into the purchase and development agreement with Bonaventure Development LLC for the sale and development of city-owned property in the Coliseum central area, recognizing we will be selling the property, the four acres for $1.7 million and causing the development of 100 to 132 multifamily residential units for the phase two of Pinnacle Apartments.

i appreciate your time this evening and glad to answer any questions you may have okay out any uh questions or comments for mr sledge all right there are none thank you for the presentation thank you ladies and gentlemen this item requires a public hearing so we are going to open the public hearing i have one speaker signed up that is uh andrew bolton

Yes, good evening, council. My name is Andrew Bolton with Bonaventure. I'm here on behalf of the company. And I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to do this project, hopefully. And I answer any questions that you might have. I think Mr. Sledge did a great job running through the basic details of the development agreement. And we've been a 10-year investor in this community with our phase one apartments at Pinnacle. It's been a very successful community for us. And we look forward to the opportunity to expand that with this phase two. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Questions for Mr. Bolton? All right. Thank you, sir. No questions for you. All right. That is the last one signed up to speak on this particular item. So we're going to close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mr. Mayor?

Councilwoman Harper.

I move that City Council approve the resolution presented in item 26 dash 0279 approving and authorizing execution of a purchase and development agreement with Bonaventure Development LLC.

Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? There being none, Madam Clerk, you call the roll.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown. Aye. Councilwoman Campbell. Aye. Councilwoman Farabee. Aye. Councilwoman Harper. Aye. Councilwoman Mudler. Aye. And Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Item number nine this evening is 26-0234. It's a use permit application by Faith Baptist Church to permit a private school at 100 Blackburn Lane with 13 conditions.

All right, Mr. Profio, you want to introduce this item?

Yes, sir. Faith Baptist Church, located at 100 Blackburn Lane, is requesting that the city approve their application for a use permit to allow them to also operate a private school at this location. City planner Quinn Heinrich is here today to present this item for council consideration. Thank you, Quinn.

Yes, good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Deputy City Manager, members of council. My name is Quinn Heinrich. Tonight I'll be presenting use permit number 26-0234, which is a use permit to permit a private school on a approximately five acre parcel on 100 Blackburn Lane within the premises of an existing religious facility. This parcel is located to the northwest of Hampton, as indicated by the red star on this map. More specifically, it is just south of the Blackburn Lane, which is a dead end street right off of Big Bethel Road. To the north on the other side of Blackburn Lane is another religious facility. To the east along Big Bethel Road is a series of one family residential dwellings. the south is a self-storage facility which is buffered from big bethel road by a large wooded area to the west is the hampton landfill And on this site, the applicant proposes a preschool with children ages three to five years, occupying five classrooms within the existing building with six to seven or six to eight staff members. They'll also have afterschool programming for elementary school age kids between ages six and 12. Between those two programs, there'll be up to 90 children attending the preschool and the afterschool programming. This is the maximum. There may be fewer students at individual times. uh the entire site will be within the existing building as previously mentioned but the applicant will also construct a 91 by 54 foot outdoor playground which will be enclosed by a six foot ornamental aluminum fence they will make use of the existing parking lot for the religious facility which has 71 parking spaces and they will be staggered drop off and pick up times to ensure that traffic does not um or spill onto blackburn lane or big bethel road and the we anticipate that the drop off and pick up will be done by people getting out of their parking getting out of their cars instead of a circulating on that this is a visual of the interior of the site of or the existing religious facility the classrooms where the preschool will be held are marked on here you can see the after school programming makes use of the largest room within the building the sanctuary where the religious services are held will not be utilized for this for this proposal this is a visual of the exterior of the site including the entrance to the parking area off of blackburn lane there are three entrances to the building where the school is and all three have sidewalks connecting directly to the parking lot on the proposed playground area will be located to the rear of the site site is currently zoned one family residential r11 as is the religious facility across the street and the one family residential properties to the east the self-storage facility of the south is split zoned general commercial c3 and residential transition rt1 the landfill is zoned with the parks district The future land use map of the Hampton Community Plan recommends public and semi-public uses for this site as well as the religious facility across the street and the landfill. The self-storage facility and the one family residential dwellings nearby, the land use plan recommends a combination of low density and rural density residential development. The community plan has several public policies relating to this site, such as evaluating land use proposals from a regional citywide and neighborhood perspective, supporting opportunities for the development and expansion of education and promoting access to education opportunities, particularly for youth and seniors. In addition, Under the Housing Neighborhoods section, the plan recommends that we continue to provide high quality community services and facilities in Hampton's neighborhoods, as well as nurture small and startup businesses. Under the Community Facilities section, it recommends leveraging the impact of community facilities to pursue the achievement of multiple community goals and objectives, and to design facilities to meet or exceed the fiscal needs of educational programs and support future academic trends. um also the hampton youth master plan recommends that youth have access to educational social civic and recreational opportunities providing opportunities for the development of strong life skills and for every young person to be prepared for a career in summary staff believes this proposal will improve child care and early education opportunities in the city of hampton and the community where it serves It is strongly compatible with the surrounding land uses and it will have minimal impact on the neighborhood because it is making use of existing facilities for classrooms and transportation. It aligns with the community plan goals for improved education and community facilities throughout the city of Hampton. It supports the adjacent residential properties, particularly families with young children, and it will be easily accessible from Big Bethel Road. staff is recommending 13 conditions upon use permit approval which include compliance with the concept plan the ensuring that all loading and unloading of children is done entirely in the parking lot and not on blackburn lane requiring that the playground be constructed within a year of approval as well as all standard compliance with laws revocation and nullification conditions the complete conditions can be found within the package applicant held a community meeting on may 19th of this year there were 20 people in attendance and they asked a wide range of questions some of the key questions that were asked included whether the school would have an impact on the church space how much the church would be responsible for financing the school's operations whether the curriculum would be aligned with the religious beliefs and goals of the church what the qualifications of the teachers were, whether there would be any impact to utilities, where and when the playground would be constructed, and when the start date for the school would be. And the applicant was able to answer all of those questions at the meeting. The applicant is here and has an opportunity to speak after public hearing at staff and planning Commission both recommend approval of this use permit number 26 dash 0, 2, 3, 4, subject to 13 conditions. Thank you and I'm available for any questions.

Questions for Mister Howard vice member.

Yeah, thank you Sir appreciate your presentation and also with the community meeting but so they all feel that the community was acceptance of this particular daycare. yes i believe it was i know you had traffic circulation in one of your conditions but was there a traffic study conducted or was there one needed there was not and there was not one needed no say it again there was not a traffic study conducted and it we determined that it wasn't needed okay thank you okay thank you uh you see the applicant is here and has uh wants to speak

We would just like, I'm Amy Eskew, this is Suzanne Geimer, and we would just like to thank you for considering and acknowledging the fact that we do need good education services and child care, quality child care. And so we'd just like to answer any questions that you have and say thank you. And thank you to Quinn and the Planning Commission. No idea how much work this was, but he helped us a great deal. Thank you, yes. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Any questions for the applicant? All right, there are none, so thank you. And this item, we're gonna move to the public hearing. All right, this item requires a public hearing, so we're gonna open the public hearing. And I do not have anyone else signed up to speak for the public hearing, so we're gonna close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mr. Mayor moved that City Council approve use permit application 26-0234 for a private school at 100 Blackburn Lane, subject to 30 conditions as presented in the agenda package.

Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? There being none, Madam Clerk, we 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 10 on the agenda is 26-0249. It's a use permit application by Siobhan Cindy to permit a pawn shop at 1531 East Pembroke Avenue with seven conditions.

All right, Mr. DeProvio, you want to introduce this item?

Yes, thank you as as the clerk had mentioned Mister John Sydney is requesting that city approved their application for use permit to operate a pawn shop you'd like to establish at 1531 East Pembroke Avenue. City planner James Randolph is here to present this item for Council's consider.

Good evening, mayor. Vice mayor Council members as indicated I'm presenting use permit application number 26 dash 0 to 4, 9. This is a use permit to permit a pawn shop to operate within the limited commercial or see to district. This is a general location map indicated by the red star showing the site in eastern portion of the city. this is a closer view of the 1531 east pembroke as highlighted in yellow on the slide it is in a three unit commercial plaza adjacent to the bowling center near the intersection of east pembroke avenue and grimes road The proposal is to renovate the existing 1,500 square foot retail unit into a pawn shop with approximately 1,000 square foot of the unit to be used for the display of merchandise. The business would operate Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and it is anticipated to create two new jobs. This is the zoning map showing the location of the property. It is zoned C2 Limited Commercial. There is residential as indicated with the R9 shown in yellow. The future land use map in the Hampton Community Plan indicates this site for future commercial use, as well as indicating the adjacent residential uses for low density residential. This is the general site plan also shows the parking the retail unit is highlighted in blue with yellow star there are approximately 24 parking spaces in front of this commercial Plaza of which 4 would be utilized for the operation of this business there is also additional parking available in front of the bowling center should that be necessary. This is a general floor plan, shows the display area, the service counter, and the storage area in the rear of the commercial unit. And this is a view of the current building with the retail unit on the far right indicated by the yellow star. This application does meet several public policy initiatives, including land use community development policy six to support the city's economic development priorities, economic development policy four to nurture small and startup businesses, and most importantly, economic development policy 10, foster the successful redevelopment of underutilized commercial properties. There are several use permit conditions associated with this application, seven, including the hours and days of operation. The second is the buying and selling and trading of firearms will be prohibited. There will also be no outside display of merchandise and the business would have to comply with Title 54.1 of the Code of Virginia, which deals with professions and occupations related to pawnbrokers. in addition it will have to comply with chapter 27 of the hampton city code for pawnbrokers junk and second-hand dealers and will be required to get a certificate of occupancy and comply with all other applicable laws and nullification and revocation processes should they be necessary Community meeting was held on August 6th of this year. The applicant and staff were present. However, out of the 200 community invitations that were provided to the adjoining properties, no one from the community attended. In analysis, this does further the adopted policies of the Hampton Community Plan. It is located in an established commercial retail center. It provides two new jobs and it has appropriate conditions for compliance with all applicable laws. In conclusion, the applicant who is here this evening will have an opportunity to present, followed by a public hearing. Staff and the Planning Commission do recommend approval of use permit number 26-0249 with the seven conditions. And the complete conditions are found in your package. And if you have any questions, I'd be pleased to address the council.

Any questions for planning? Councilman Bowman.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. um my question is since we are dealing with firearms um do we have adequate security because there have been several break-ins for pawn shops and several guns have went up and down the east coast so i just want to make sure that we have adequate security to prevent firearms being placed on the streets

there there will be adequate security for the building this use permit application prohibits the buying selling and trading at the request of the applicant they felt it was appropriate to address that with community values and the city was very amenable to providing that as a condition of this application uh to prohibit there will be no buying selling trading or business activities associated with firearms related to this permit thank you

OK. Any other questions? Councilwoman Moodley.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In the slides, there is slide number 10. There's an adjacent business called the Money Clip.

That is actually the prior business that was located in this retail unit and it was a thrift store. The signs are still up there. They would be replaced with new signage should this permit be approved.

So this business would go all the way down there?

it would actually the money clip the thrift store actually occupied 2 of those 3 retail units this business is only going to occupy the and units. So currently there's no other business next to correct all 3 units are currently big thank you.

The questions for Mister Randall. Okay, thank you I believe you said the applicant wants to speak.

Yes, that can is here this evening would like to say a few words. To the cap.

Good evening Mister Cindy.

Yes, my name is so awesome. Yes, my name is Sean Cindy live in Hampton. I want to invest in Hampton. I've been a fisherman for over a decade and it's kind of taken a toll on me and so I want to open my own business in this opportunity and I love dealing with people I love helping people so this kind of gives me an opportunity to do that and I just want to thank you guys for the opportunity To start this new business. You guys have any questions.

Any questions for the applicant vice mayor Brown.

Yeah, this just this is a question of curiosity how do you stock up on shop. How do you how you stock and how do you get your items well just from people bringing in OK selling yeah. Yeah, it's rest of the start of the at this. Okay, interesting thanks.

Any other questions for the applicant. OK. Thank you, Mr. Cindy. Thank you. This item requires a public hearing. So we're going to open the public hearing. There was only one person signed up to speak, and he just spoke. So I don't think we need to bring him back. So we'll close the public hearing and call for a motion.

Mister mayor move that the City Council prove you submit application 26 that you're 2, 4, 9, 4, 5, shop at 1531 East Pembroke Avenue subject to 7 conditions as presented in the agenda package.

The second. I have a motion and a second is any further discussion. I could be in a madam clerk you call rule.

Councilman Bowman I vice mayor Brown I Councilwoman Campbell I Councilman therapy, I can't woman Harper I can't woman Mugler I may regret. aye item 11 on tonight's agenda is 26-0238 it's an ordinance to amend and reenact the city code of the city of hampton virginia by amending chapter 35 subdivisions to align the subdivision ordinance with the state code and ensure consistency with current regulations and compliance standards yes um mike can't get it on mr de profio

This item involves a recommended amendments chapter 35, the city code, which covers subdivisions. Basically, these changes are to align our code with some recent changes that were made to the state code and also incorporate some of the city's established practices into the code. Including these practices among the recommended amendments will provide greater clarity for developers about these practices when they go to interact with the city. Chief site plan agent. This year. Yeah. Sue here. Yeah, I'm is here to present these recommended changes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening. This year.

My name is her the urban I'm here today to present the amendment subdivision code proposal. I will explain the benefit it will provide to the community and how it will align with the city goals for growth. Subdivision, so the subdivision is a process to divide a piece of land into two or more lots for development, for sale, or ownership reasons. It can be simple, as simple as split, or a large subdivision related to a big development project where a new road or a new infrastructure proposed, such as public road, right-of-way vacation, easement, and even more. The subdivision process ensured that new lots meet zoning and development requirements, such as minimum lot area, frontage, proper access infrastructures, and support safe, organized, and sustainable community. I also want to mention that this process timeframe can vary depends on the complexity of the subdivision. Some application may be as simple as splitting, as we mentioned, one lot into two lots, while others may involve a new street, stormwater ponds, or a new utility surfaces. The overall review timeline can also depend on how quickly the developer respond back to the staff comment and address any required corrections. The amendment align the city code with the current state requirement, streamline the review process with the cleaner requirement and make the code easier to understand and to use. So we are proposing over here, a 12 section, which include general housekeeping and technical correction, but the major changes will include only five sections. So I'm gonna go through the five sections only. Amendment on Section 35-15 formalize how parcel legality is determined by requiring all the determination to go through the official application and review process. Staff should not make informal determination and that any parcel found to have be created through an illegal subdivision may be denied approval. This amendment in section 35-23, we're making some housekeeping and technical update. However, on section B-9, it's clarifying the identification of burial site. Any grave burial marker or related structure within the proposed subdivision must be identified by a qualified archeologist or other appropriate professional using accepted industry standards. In this amendment, section 35-24, the amendment moves the review process from paper-based to digital submission, reducing cost, improving efficiency, and speed up the reviews. Hard copies will still be required at final approval to meet the record keeping requirements. Section 35-26, this amendment update the preliminary subdivision review timeline to meet the state's requirement by shortening review period. As you see on the slide, staff review time decreased from 60 days to 40 days. Staff have to coordinate with appropriate state agency within five days instead of 10 days, and so on. Also in the same section 35-26, it's update a new state requirement. The third and later resubmittal or reviews comment must be issued together and planning manager must make the decision within 14 days to keep the review process timely and efficient. Lastly, section 35-46 in this section, the amendment shortening the final subdivision review time from 45 days to 30 days. So the conclusion and after public hearing plan, planning commission and staff recommends approval of the subdivision ordinance amendment number 26-0238. Thank you so much and willing to answer any question you may have thank you questions from this deal.

All right so this item requires a public here we're going to open a public hearing I have one speaker signed up to speak on that Mister to resurface.

Good evening. My name is Theresa Roundy, a resident and a business owner in the city of Hampton. And I just want to address how it pertains to the cemeteries. And I want to just request that the language require the identification of the cemetery's documented historical boundaries, not merely just the visible markers, because we saw that with Barnes. They took all the tombstones out. And he kept saying, there's no graves there. There's no tombstones. There's no graves. So I want to make sure that that's taken care of. Reviewed by a qualified cemetery archaeologist, we found that that does make a difference. Written notice to the Department of Historic Resources when unmarked graves may be present, and preservation of all professional findings and waiver decisions in the permit parcels and permit records. And if you look, In the first set of papers, you'll see these health permits. This is what was used in Barnes Cemetery to move the 11 vaults. I would like to request that somebody get me a full set of the 11, because if you look at the last two pages, you'll see one permit and a half, and then the last page is one permit and a half. So we have 10 full permits and two half permits. I'd like to have a copy of that missing 11th permit. And if you look on the last page, there's Frank Chisman. I have a picture of the day after all the bodies were removed and there was no dirt removed from his grave. So that's another... issue is to make sure that going forward that when they give you this stuff that they're actually doing what they say because when they went over to the new cemetery his grave wasn't marked. They moved, if you look there's three permits using the name Virginia Barnes. When they went to the other place there was only one Virginia Barnes marked and no records show that there were three Virginia Barnes living in Hampton. And if you look at the last one, this is the actual, according to the Department of Historic Resources, this ground penetrating radar and report was done by the correct qualified people to do so. The city kept saying, the developer said, oh, all the bodies are gone and we have these 11 permits to prove. This is what was found with the correct ground penetrating radar. Now, mind you, this was only one little corner of the two acres. 35 graves that aren't supposed to be there. So we need to make sure that things are done properly and all documents are are saved in the record. Thank you.

Okay, thank you miss rounding. That is the last speaker for public hearing so going to close public hearing and call for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, quick question for the city attorney. The comments that were made to adjust this, can we just say as noted, or do we need to go back and adjust these?

If council wants to make any amendments to the text, I would suggest you all would need to give us clear direction about what you would like us to do. And then we would not be in a position to approve that tonight because that would involve amending the language, coming back, presenting that to make sure that's what you want. Also, I think based on what she's asking for would require us to do some research to determine whether not that is feasible for us to incorporate into the zoning ordinance because these are mandatory requirements for a by-right application they would be come so i think you either vote on it as is or we would need to have a vote for staff to go back and do more work But we can't this is not a simple just drop something.

All right then Mister mayor. I move the city council to first city code amendment 26 dash 0, 2, 3, 8, to the legislative session on October 28th.

So that there's a no second for that motion so. Is there a motion to. For one of the other items on the agenda. I'm sorry for even motion to defer motion to approve with this. It was Carol. But you you a motion to to push a motion to defer. But we don't have a second so that motion fails.

Councilman for the thing you just have a question because And I don't know if it can be answered or not by the person that previously spoke, because I'm looking at slide 9 that does say that there's a requirement that any grave object or structure marking a place of burial within the proposed subdivision be identified by a qualified archaeologist or similar professional following accepted industry standards. So I guess I'm a little bit confused. I understand that... So is there a way to get that clarification?

Yes. So the current code actually identified that we have to identify the burial area. And that's it. There is no explanation or more details in the current code. We're amending that to say that it have to be identified by certified archaeologists. So we're adding this to be sure that the people who identify the location will not miss some burial area or they will not miss the location, the exact location of the burial. So to add more details on how this process, if they wanna keep the graves as it's located or move them, that will need more search and more work to do, which is in our plan. Actually, we started that already, but that will need more work to be kind of checking the state's code and the other jurisdiction, how they process these locations.

Thank you, this may have been another question. Council for thank you so. Are you comfortable with moving forward in terms of because it looks like you've tried to.

Yeah, we're trying to make it yeah, we're trying to make it better by be sure that who can identify the location. If I may give you an example, for example, if we we took we take an X-ray for the human body, we all can look at it and say hey, these are the balls of that. or whatever part of the body. But we will not be able to identify what's the organs over there, if it's damaged or not, if it's whatever different items are in the X-ray. It's the same situation over here. Anybody can take the device do the radar above the ground, but who will be able to read these waves and these reactions from the device unless it's a specialist. So this is what we are asking in this amendment. We're not adding any details that will show what's the process. and and we're not adding any details of what's needed to be done we are adding just one sentences that we're asking for a certified professional archaeologist to read this radar thank you questions

I did I did have one related to what to miss around the show on this.

Barnes cemetery site because I was on the impression that all the graves at that location have been relocated. But I guess what I'm seeing is you I'm not sure who who pay for order to ground penetration radar

I'm sorry, who was that miss? Okay, all right. I mean this one.

So so he is the current owner of the property.

I'm sorry, part of the cemetery is still on 217. They moved that invisible line, but it's like if they move that wall, say that wall was an invisible line and they moved it to here, y'all are still sitting there. It's just like the graves when they allowed them to move that invisible line. from where the fire hydrant is located over so they could put that driveway in there. They didn't move the bodies underneath of the driveway. And they were allowed to put the driveway and underground utilities through the area where the barn's plot is and everything. So, but they used an old ground penetrating radar, which was not, I went up to the Department of Historic Resources and spent two hours and took a box of documents. And the first one that the city went by was not by a qualified person to do that. This one that I gave you is the qualified person. And like I said, it was only, if you're looking at the cemetery The fence line to the left and then on the right there's a fire hydrant. Those are going to be your original two acres back to the tree line. put, I think it's 1.24 acres into parcel 217, so they could get to that landlocked lot. And then I have some other stuff that shows that the cemetery was actually bigger than that. But they only requested that one area that you're seeing. That's just that one area towards the fence. And it's up front. So it doesn't do the back portion or anything over on the right. I don't think it connected to any part of 215, because if you look at it, it's all wooded. It's got trees and everything. And ground penetrating radar cannot go through tree roots. And the person only asked for that front left-hand corner to be done. And I have the whole report. I think I gave that to y'all.

Okay.

But I can get that if you need it.

I just want to be clear are we talking about 2 separate things because I think the one we're talking about with the subdivision should be only for the amendment to coincide us with our state regulation and because we're we're kind of getting into some of the right so the language that's in me.

proposed ordinance in front of you. would include a requirement that any grave object or structure marking a place of burial within the proposed subdivision shall be clearly designated by an archeologist or similar professional qualified to conduct such designation in accordance with prevailing industry standards. That would be required on PLATS going forward. If you want to get into more detailed requirements or specifications um that's something we would need to take input from you all on and come do some research and come back at a later time but the language that i just read is what is in the proposed ordinance that is in front of you tonight you still have questions councilman hopper

I think I'm good. I just want to be sure for the public and who's watching and for the record that, you know, I didn't want them to get confused that it was more detail in it than what it was specified to be. We're just trying to bring our ordinance and code up to the state standard and making sure that if anything goes forth that a certified person will be doing that and not just any willy-nilly.

Vice Mayor Brown.

I'm sorry, finish. You make that word up? Vice Mayor Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I think we can approve this tonight as is our custom. We've always been able to readjust and make amendments to a particular ordinance. I don't see us holding it up. I think the language is clear, and if it needs more clarity moving forward or prohibits what we're trying to do, we should look at it again. But I think tonight we're good. I am good to approve it.

So with that American I make the motion just want to make sure we don't have any of the comments. I want to make sure that this I'm sorry Councilman Campbell. The Councilman fairly.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I really appreciate you speaking up and providing us with additional documentation, but I think this is a good first step, and I think we should continue to move forward with making any adjustments as we move along, and I really, really appreciate you bringing us this information and allowing for us to have this discussion.

Councilwoman okay. I just want to add I agree with Councilman fair me I mean I think we're bringing our current ordinance into compliance with state code which is better than what we have now and I think I heard this the app say that you all are still looking at how you can work on these regulations to make them better. Could you could you just elaborate on that because I think that's what I heard your comment to be before you.

Yes, it's been because of a couple of situation that we had we needed to set up a procedure on how to deal with it and what will be allowed and make it as an included with the code or for future or with the policy but as I mentioned it will need a lot of research and we have to be sure that what's best.

okay all right and then so maybe you all can take uh consideration you know comments about mr rounding ms round i know you do communicate and sometimes engage with staff outside of these meetings it's kind of hard for us to do that when we're talking about three minutes that you get to talk and you're loading us up with a lot of information but there's still opportunity for us to continue to make the The regulations better, but what we need to approve tonight to bring ourselves into compliance with state code is better than what we have and takes into consideration some of the things I think that you asked for. All right. So with that, is there a motion on this, this item?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we adopt the city, the city council adopt the city code amendment. 26-0238 updating clarifying the subdivision ordinance chapter 35 the city code that's presented in the agenda package second all right we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion there being none madam clerk you call the road

Councilman Bowman, aye. Vice Mayor Brown, aye. Councilwoman Campbell, aye. Councilwoman Theraby, aye. Councilwoman Harper, aye. Councilwoman Mugler, aye. Mayor Gray, aye.

All right, and that is the last item we have for public hearing. So I'm going to ask the clerk to read the protocol for public comment period.

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 and each speaker is allowed three minutes. The timer has a green light which will turn yellow with one minute remaining and 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 and 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.

All right. And we have a few people signed up to speak tonight. I know we also have some people who are here to speak tonight. They haven't come before us in the past. So first of all, here is the indicator over here. Green light means you're on your 3 minutes the yellow light means you have one minute remaining and when the light turns read your time is up. So for those who came in if you hear for the first time if you wrote a 5 minute speech you still only get 3 minutes to say it and when you realize that your time is that I don't give you extra time because you're not finished with your mom so we're clear on how that works and we'll call the first speaker public comment which is Mister is around.

Thank you. Again, my name's Teresa Roundy. The second set of papers I gave you first is an invitation to the cemetery talk at the main library upstairs in the Virginia Anna Room Saturday at 1.30. For anybody that'd like to come, we're talking cemeteries and some history, usually, and genealogy, because we all come from somewhere. And then this is a report on abandoned and neglected cemeteries. It's just a bunch of information that might be useful for y'all with the cemeteries. And this is the 21st anniversary month of Barnes Cemetery. being desecrated. And I want to thank you for upgrading the chapter 35 on the cemetery that pertains to the cemeteries. Also, I don't, I come here because I think it's important for not just the council, but for the people to understand the importance of the cemeteries and learn history about them. I don't always come here and when I talk about barns, I know you can't do anything about what happened in the past, but it's something to remember going forwards as we just discussed. So that it doesn't happen again. And that's why I do that. But it's also an ongoing issue where they were going to build on it just this year. So on the Barnes Cemetery. But I also, like I gave you, Elmerton Cemetery last month. There's like Bassett Cemetery. You know that's two city parcels? not just one. And I was doing some research within the last week or two and the reason it's two is because they were in two municipalities when it formed because we had the city of Hampton and we had Elizabeth City County. So part of that was originally in what was Hampton and Elizabeth City County. So that's why you have two separate entities i'm also looking at pleasant shade to track down montrose company to see what we can do about that and i've got a workbook too if anybody it has to do with the city law enforcement and that type of thing so thank you so much

Thank you I'm sure around and thank you for all you do to continue to keep cemeteries in the forefront of our minds, I know we have a lot of them in the city, some of them carry historic designations of perhaps they get more attention than the others. But you know you're what you're doing is important and we appreciate all you do to kind of keep us informed. All right next speaker is Ray bond Pearson.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, City Council. My wife began a plan for a pop-up shop event where she would have local vendors to attend and be able to show the city what they do. She began this plan in June. We spoke to Corporal Kennedy initially. He informed us that we had to go to Parks and Rec, secure the spot. application fee. We went and paid the application fee. We paid the $500 to rent the Buckrow Beach stage and the plot of land in front of Buckrow Beach. At that time, we were told that's what was needed in order to secure the date for our event. We picked the date. It was 60 days out, as we were told. We ended up picking August 15th. There was nothing on that date. We picked the date, paid the money. Within about two weeks, you know, of us just communicating with Parks and Rec, there was a call from the farmers market to the city that we were interfering with their vendors fair on that they were having same date, same place. We were never informed about that. We wouldn't have picked the date in the first place if we were informed of that. So we kind of got past that. We ended up changing our time from 12 to 3 to 2 to 5. Then we received a phone call about a week from that mishap about insurance. Do we have liability insurance? We said, no, we weren't aware that we had to have liability insurance, but okay. So we paid the $350 to get the day liability insurance. more time passes, we're promoting our event, then it's do you have a promotions license, which is $500. And this is about a week before the event was to happen. We had already been through changing the times with our vendors. We had 14 vendors, all of them agreed to change times. I guess I'm here to just on behalf of my wife to say the process for the average person who wants to throw an event to that caliber It should be a lot easier. It should be spelled out a lot clearer. And all of the things that it takes to make this event happen should be presented initially. You know, this is about almost a two-month process that we were just added on information that was left out initially. And we were steady selling out money to make this event happen. And in the end, we had to cancel the event because we couldn't attain the $500 a week before the event was to happen. We had already spent almost $2,000 trying to keep up with everything that was presented to us. So I guess in a nutshell, on behalf of my wife and myself, city council, we just, as normal regular people, would want the process of that to be a lot easier.

All right, thank you, Mr. Pearson. Thank you. All right, next speaker is Kalon Johnson. And please state your name and that didn't come up and that's a correct.

He said right. So my name is Kaylin Johnson and I'm here to speak about the sidewalks and green bar Avenue. Currently we do not have any sidewalks on my on my street. Yeah, we don't have, we don't have Sioux West on my street at all. Our street is a two-lane street. A lot of times, a lot of cars or residents, they park one of their cars on one side of the street. That ends up turning it into a one-lane street. The reason why I have a concern about My neighborhood and other neighborhoods, but specifically the one I live in, is because my kids, when they go to school, they don't have a sidewalk to walk to get to the bus stop. So what ends up happening is that they have to walk into a ditch, close to a ditch. For me, that's just not acceptable. Obviously, there's nothing I can do about it as of now, but I'm trying my best to at least have my voice be heard and also for the residents that live in my neighborhood. What I did, me and my wife and I, we walked up and down the street and we made a petition and had residents sign just seeing if they would be willing to have sidewalks on our street. What I've been... I've got about 25 signatures. But what I've also what I've been told from residents has been living there since 1995 2003 is that they have tried. But it's always some some type of some some other reason why they can't get the sidewalks. Some of the some of the reasons that I heard to me did. It sounded like It was a resident that used to live there before may have some grievances with people that price to be in charge of the of the city, I'm trying to get more zones, I apologize. And it is pretty much just fell by the wayside this other residents that they said they've done certain things but then they if they pretty much got frustrated and just let it go. Obviously, I'm younger. I just moved into the area. I've only been living there about five years. I plan on living there pretty much the rest of my life because I can do my entire career in Norfolk. Well, in Norfolk and I can stay in Hampton. The reason why... I brought that up because I'm I'm just trying to out of the residents know that even the you know a lot of the senior citizens senior citizens have. Gave up on trying to get sidewalks, I told him that you know and at least let me keep going in and if. Times are right.

and mr um johnson just so you know we you know the deputy city manager will try to address some of the comments that we made we don't address them during the meeting so don't you think we're ignoring what you hear we do hear what you're saying so all right next speaker is joan weaver

Good evening to the governance, Ms. Glass, city attorney. I am here on behalf of supporting Mr. Johnson. I am a 62 year resident of that neighborhood and I can tell you it has been marginalized for a great period of time, but don't give up the fight. We are here, we are with you, and we are here to see that the city adheres to what we need. Ms. Bunning has told me since July and August that she would be here to address my concern. Nothing I heard. One thing I will say, the rule of law does work. The wheel of justice turns. It turns slowly, but it does turn. We put you all in your seats. You are now knocking on doors. You are blowing up our phones. Public servants warning us. But where are you all, city council, city manager, mayor, vice mayor, when we need you? You turn a deaf ear. No, that's not going to work, because as I told you, I will be the broken record, Hampton University educated, undergrad and graduate, masters, post-educated. And if you do what you have done to me, the disrespect that you have shown me, God forbid what you will show our residents who are marginalized. But I am here to say, as long as there is breath in my body, we will keep coming back and the greater with you will give us the respect that we do deserve. You are not in a spectator sport. You are not to be silent seat sitters. You were there to answer us. I have sent numerous emails and you have never responded. Why? But yet you come and seek our votes. So Greater With is here, and we want help. We want a continuum. You put those warehouses in there totally disrespecting us, but we're not going away, and we are going to fight until you give us the respect and dignity that we deserve. Thank you.

Thank you miss we were. The last speaker is Kenya. And the volume is that if I did not pronounce that correctly please state your name you come up.

Hi, how are you? Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. All right, I'm going to start reading. I'm sorry. I didn't want to forget anything. My name is Dr. Kenya Duvalier, and I am the founder of Love Association Incorporated, which stands for Leaders Offering Valuable Energy. I have provided 10 copies for you of information about love because I cannot address all of it in this time frame. Love is a Virginia-based 501 nonprofit organization registered on the VA website created to help bridge the gap between generations of all ages and disabilities. The goal is to intentionally create opportunities for the youth, adults, seniors to come together through community service, structured programs, entertainment, and multi-generational events and activities. The mission is to create memorable moments that allow generations to share love, support, fun, encouragement, and positive experiences with one another. Our vision goes even further. We want to create platforms where younger and older generations can share knowledge, gain understanding, build relationships, and develop bonds. that can last well beyond a single event. We believe leadership can exist at every age. A child can positively influence a senior. A senior can share wisdom with a youth. Everyone has something valuable to offer our community. Angel Armies, a youth performance group who are ambassadors of love association that uses music, dance, entertainment, and arts to spread positive messages with help with helping connect with people across generations. We want to work with communities creating an all-inclusive support system that involves everyone combating loneliness and giving individuals a sense of purpose. A partnership could include love association, participating in existing city events, collaborating with new community programs, providing volunteers, and entertainment connecting youth and seniors of all abilities. We are not coming before you asking what the city can do for Love Association. We are here to ask how and what can Love Association do for the city of Hampton and the community. A goal is to become a reliable community partner, one that helps bring people together, create positive experiences, support those in need, encourage our youth, honors our seniors, and encourage individuals with disabilities as an all-inclusive organization. Everyone has value. Everyone has something to contribute. Love Association provides opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to volunteer and participate and have purpose in serving each other. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Duvalier. That is the final speaker for this evening. So I will ask the deputy city manager if he wants to address any of the items brought up by the speakers.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. First, I want to echo Council's appreciation to Ms. Roundy in continuing to bring the cemetery issue to us so that we can make sure that that gets properly addressed. In terms of the questions that mr. Pearson had had raised regarding the issues with our special events permitting process I know Jason Mitchell who's our assistant city manager has been asked to look into that and make sure that process works well for for the members of our community because we certainly don't want to have somebody sort of come to the city you want to do an event and then you know not understand what the requirements are. That should certainly all be communicated up front, and we want those processes to be smooth for the folks who want to bring great things to our community. So we are working on that. I think Mr. Pearson may have left, but that is something that we are working on, and we can certainly follow up with him. In terms of the issues relative to the sidewalks on Greenbrier that Mr. Johnson and Ms. Weaver raised, one of the things that we initiated about, I think it was about a year ago, it may have been more recently, a study of the shell road corridor an infrastructure study and that was one of the things that we did in response to some of the outreach that we were doing in the community to uh to address some of the concerns that were raised um relative to flooding and various other infrastructure issues so that study is ongoing and we are we're working on that and we'll be bringing that forward in the coming months to council. And it'll be a multi-year, multi-phased process, because I understand that some of the needs there are pretty extensive. I can't speak specifically as to whether the study will recommend sidewalks on Greenbrier, but I know that that's something that we are looking at in terms of the infrastructure deficiencies in that area. Also, I think one of the things that we're looking at miss weaver had uh had had implied was that you know we weren't being responsive to to her and i can i can certainly reach out to miss weaver and and make sure that uh that we respond to the concerns that she has and i will do that um after the meeting the uh the last um item in terms of mr miss uh delvail we do greatly appreciate um her and her interest in helping the community and we will reach out to her and see if there's some ways that we can work with her. Because certainly volunteers with the efforts that we try to do here are always welcome and we always want to work with our community to make it the best it can be. That's all I have. Okay, thank you.

All right, so that's all the speakers we have. Are there any reports by city council, city manager, staff, or committees? Is there any new business? And we've got to get you to appointments. I'm trying to get you all out of here. All right, so you guys are watching football. Okay, let's see. Read the motion for the appointment.

Okay, the motion required on your appointments this evening is, it's a long one, but I'll read fast. On the Planning Commission, appoint Linwood Williams to a first term until September 30, 2030. On the Hampton Animal Response Team Advisory Committee, appoint Dr. Irina Gorbunova-Ford to the unexpired portion of term until December 31, 2028. and Pamela Withrow to the unexpired portion of a term until February 28, 2027. On the Neighborhood Commission, appoint Myse Stevens to the unexpired portion of a term for District 6, Buckrow, until February 28, 2028, and appoint Alicia Miller to the unexpired portion of a term for District 9, which is greater width, until September 30, 2029. On the Hampton Clean City Commission, appoint Michelle D'Antonio to serve the unexpired portion of a term until June 30, 2027. On the Board of Zoning Appeals, recommend to the Circuit Court that Jonathan Oliveira be appointed until December 31, 2029. Two appointments for alternate terms will be considered by Council on October 28th. On the Citizens Unity Commission, reappoint Stephanie Donati, Walter Dickerson, and Katherine Tadros to second terms until August 31, 2030. Filling two unexpired terms will be considered on October 28. On the Peninsula Agency on Aging, appoint Katherine Wiesman to serve a first term until September 30, 2029. On the Hampton Redevelopment and Housing Authority, reappoint Jeffrey Sanford to a second term until September 30, 2030. And you will defer action on the Citizens Police Advisory Group until October 28, 2026.

Is there a motion to second on the appointments?

So moved, Mr. Mayor.

Second.

All right. Madam Clerk, you call the roll.

Councilman Bowman. Aye. Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

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

Aye. Okay. Now, are there any reports from city manager, city council, staff, or committees? There being none, any new business? All right. There's no new business. We are adjourned.