City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome. City Council is now in session. Please stand for the invocation by Council Member Butler-Barlow, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

to give thanks for summer with its longer days and slower pace. We appreciate the extra time to spend with family and friends and opportunities for vacations from work and school. We savor the flavors, the sounds, and the sights that are unique to summertime. On this midsummer's evening, we ask for wisdom and courage as we conduct the business of the city of Suffolk and we ask for blessings on all gathered here on our staff and on our citizens. 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. The Freedom of Information Act certification is required at this time. Madam Clerk, please present the resolution for consideration.

A resolution certifying the closed meeting of July the 15th pursuant to Virginia code section, excuse me, July 15th, 2026 pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3712 is presented for council's consideration at this time. Now, therefore be it resolved the city council, the city of Suffolk hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements of Virginia law, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the City Council, the City of Suffolk, and the closed meeting.

Council, a motion be in order. Council Member Williams? So moved. Got a motion for approval. Council Member Williams? Council Member Bennett?

Second.

Second from Council Member Bennett. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

Motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

We now move to approval of the minutes from the April 15th, 2026 and May 6th, 2026 work session and regular meeting. And a motion would be in order. Council Member Williams. Move for approval. Motion for approval from Council Member Williams. Council Member Rector. Second. Second from Council Member Rector. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to 0.

We do have one special presentation this evening, which will be a proclamation in recognition of National Night Out. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, the Suffolk community will celebrate National Night Out Thursday, August the 6th. This evening's proclamation will continue to build participation and excitement in this year's event. Accepting the proclamation is Jennifer Moore, Director of Media and Community Relations, Police Chief Danny Bowie, and Deputy Fire Chief James Dickens, as well as Nat Knight.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, Mr. City Manager. Before I accept the proclamation this evening, I'd like to kick off the National Night Out spirit by sharing a short video with all of you. Perfect. Thank you. Do we need to read the proclamation?

Madam Clerk, please present the proclamation. She's taking over for me. It's all good.

Whereas the National Association of Town Watch is sponsoring a unique nationwide crime prevention program known as National Night Out, which will be observed on August 6th, 2026. And whereas traditionally held on the first Tuesday of August, Suffolk's 43rd annual National Night Out has been moved to Thursday, August 6th, due to Virginia's primary election, ensuring that residents can celebrate this important tradition of civic engagement. And whereas the city of Suffolk recognizes that public safety is a shared responsibility, and that engaged neighborhoods and active partnerships are essential to preventing crime, strengthening communities, and engaging, excuse me, enhancing the quality of life for all residents. And whereas National Night Out encourages neighbors to come together, build relationships with public safety professionals, and demonstrate their commitment to creating safer, more connected neighborhoods. Now, therefore, I, Mayor, Michael D. Duman, Mayor of the City of Suffolk, to hereby proclaim August 6th, 2026 as National Night Out in Suffolk, Virginia, and call upon all citizens to participate in this important event that celebrates the value of safer communities. In witness whereof, I'm hearing to set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Suffolk to be affixed this 15th day of July in the year of our Lord, 2026.

I got that part too, if that's okay. I'd like to ask the members of our National Night Out Committee to please join me here at the podium.

All right.

I stand before you tonight as the chair of the Suffolk National Night Out Committee. Joining me are the members of our committee, Police Chief Danny Bowie, Deputy Fire Chief James Dickens, and of course, Nat Knight. Together, we are excited to officially invite each of you to this year's National Night Out, which is just 22 days away. This year's National Night Out will be held on Thursday, August 6th. While the event is traditionally held on the first Tuesday of August, it was moved this year to avoid conflicting with the primary elections. On that evening, communities, civic leagues, homeowners associations, and local businesses across the city will come together to celebrate. This year's event features more than 20 host locations, eight tour routes, and weather permitting, an expected attendance of nearly 15,000 people, making it one of the largest community events in Suffolk. No one in Hampton Roads celebrates National Night Out quite like we do in Suffolk. Last year, we earned an impressive seventh place national ranking in our population category, continuing our longstanding tradition of being recognized as one of the top national night out communities in the country. And this year, we're aiming to climb even higher. So yes, National Night Out is a celebration, but it's really about strengthening the relationships between our community and the men and women who serve and protect us. It's an opportunity to build neighborhood connections, promote public safety, and remind ourselves that we are stronger when we stand together as one city. So Mayor Duman, on behalf of the Suffolk National Night Out Committee, thank you for this recognition, and we appreciate your continued support of this outstanding community tradition. So now let's take a picture.

All right, at this time we'll consider the removal of items from the consent agenda and adoption of the entire agenda as presented. Removal of any item from the consent agenda would only be necessary if any member of city council wishes to vote on a specific item separately and a motion would be required. This time a motion would be in order. Council Member Johnson.

Proposed to accept the consent agenda as proposed.

We're going to get a motion to approve the consent agenda. Is it approved? We have a second. Council Member Williams? Second, Mayor. Second from Council Member Williams. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 8-0.

Madam Clerk, do we have any agenda speakers at this time?

No, Mayor Dubois.

Hearing none, will you please present the consent agenda items for consideration?

Item number seven, an ordinance creating a traffic safety fund for the receipt of funds collected from automated traffic camera violations. Item number eight, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Suffolk Parks and Trails Alliance for the Suffolk Department of Parks and Recreation to enhance the Festival of Lights event. Item number nine, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Aviation for the Suffolk Executive Airport. Item number 10, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services in support of the Suffolk Police Department. Item number 11, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Virginia 911 Services Board Public Safety Answering Point Grant Program in support of the Suffolk Police Department's individual call handling equipment. Item number 12, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Virginia 911 Services Board Public Safety Answering Point Program for the Suffolk Police Department. Item number 13, a resolution approving an increase to the Sheriff's excuse me, the Suffolk Sheriff's Department fiscal year 2026-2027 operating budget. Item number 14, an ordinance to reappropriate unspent fiscal year 2025-2026 fund to the fiscal year 2026-2027 school operating fund for Suffolk Public Schools. Item number 15, an ordinance to reappropriate unspent encumbered funds from fiscal year 2025-2026 to fiscal year 2026-2027 school operating fund for Suffolk Public Schools. Item number 16, an ordinance to accept and appropriate additional state funds for Suffolk Public Schools. Item number 17, an ordinance to authorize the city manager to transfer funds from the general fund, unassigned fund balance to the school's operating fund.

Mr. Mayor, would you please provide an overview? Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, consent item number seven. As presented and discussed in the work session, the Virginia General Assembly amended the code concerning the use of photo speed monitoring devices July 1, 2026. A traffic safety fund needs to be established for proceeds from the traffic camera violations. The funds received will be used for projects as defined in the revised Virginia Code. Consent item number eight. Suffolk Parks and Recreation partners with a very active and engaged Suffolk Parks and Trails Alliance. They volunteered their time during the Festival of Lights collecting donations at the entrance of Sleepy Hole Park. Their efforts have resulted in $6,426 The funding will be used to enhance the festival of lights produced by the Suffolk Department of Parks and Recreation. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues and expenditures of the fiscal year 26-27 general operating budget by $6,426 and does not require a match. Consent item number nine. The city has received $8,214.74 in funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Aviation in support of the Suffolk Executive Airport for fiscal year 26-27. Funding will be used to assist in the purchase of runway edge lighting and real lights for runway 22. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues and expenditures of the Aviation Facilities Fund by $8,214.74. The required $2,053.69 for a local match is available in the 26-27 Aviation Facilities Fund budget. Consent item number 10. The city has received $228,136 in grant funding from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services in support of the Suffolk Police Department Funding will be used to assist with the hiring of four new school resource officers to include salaries and equipment to outfit each officer. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues expenditures of the consolidated grant funds by $228,136 and requires a local cash match of $130,512, which is provided in a fiscal year 26-27 police operating budget. Consent item number 11, the city has received $300,000 in funding from the Virginia 911 Services Board in support of the Suffolk Police Department. Funds will be used for redundancy upgrades, which will equip the city with the ability to simultaneously operate the existing system with the new backup system. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues expenditures, the consolidated grant funds budget by $300,000 and does not require a match. Consent item number 12. The city has received $5,000 in funding from the Virginia 911 Services Board in support of the Suffolk Police Department 911 public safety communication, education, and training for emergency communication operators in the Emergency Communications Center. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues and expenditures of the consolidated grant fund by $5,000 and does not require a local match. Consent item number 13. For Suffolk's consideration is a resolution approving an increase of $24,075.76 in the Suffolk Sheriff's Department fiscal year 26-27 operating budget. The Code of Virginia now requires possession and uses of portable and electronic devices in both district and circuit courts. The funding will ensure full compliance with the Code of Virginia to include storage lockers, cases, and locking stations. Funds will be made available in the fiscal year 26-27 general fund operating budget. Consent item number 14. For Suffolk City Council's consideration is an ordinance to reappropriate $466,000 $80.75 in unspent fiscal year 25-26 funds to the fiscal year 26-27 school operating fund. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the fiscal year 26-27 general fund and schools operating fund budget by $466,080.75. Included in your agenda is a memorandum from the superintendent outlining five projects that were proposed to be completed with this funding. Consent item number 15 for City Council's consideration is an ordinance re-appropriating $1,500,780.88 in unspent fiscal year 25-26 funds to the fiscal year 26-27 school operating fund. Also included in your package is a memorandum from Superintendent Gordon that details request in your agenda book. This specific request outlines in paragraph number four of the memo and includes a list of 30 purchase orders secured but not completed from a project perspective. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the fiscal year 26-27 schools operating fund and general fund budget by $1,500,780.88. Consent item number 16 for council's consideration is an ordinance to accept and appropriate $4,230,104 in additional state funds for fiscal year 26-27 for Suffolk Public Schools. Additional state funding will provide for a 4% salary increase special education add-ons, school breakfast, and at-risk add-ons, as well as infrastructure and operating funds. Adoption of the ordinance will increase fiscal year 26-27 school operating fund budget by $4,230,104. Consent item number 17. Attached for council's consideration is an ordinance to transfer funds from the general fund unassigned fund balance in support of Suffolk Public Schools. As you may recall, we recommended allowing the General Assembly to finalize the state budget to ensure we could access the full budget proposal coming to Suffolk Public Schools. Upon state budget execution, we've determined that $688,000 are needed to fund the superintendent's proposed budget for fiscal year 26-27. The adoption of the ordinance will increase the 26-27 general fund budget and schools operating fund budget by $688,000. That concludes your items.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. If there are no questions about the items, the motion would be in order to approve the consent agenda as presented. Council Member Williams. Move to approve. Motion for approval. Council Member Williams. Council Member Wright.

Second.

Second from Council Member Wright. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

Motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

We now move to public hearings. Our first public hearing is an ordinance authorizing issuance and sale of bonds by the city of Suffolk, Virginia, and establishing the terms, details, and provisions for the payment thereof. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, at your June 3rd city council meeting, you received a presentation regarding our plan of finance for the approved CIP projects in the 26-27 fiscal year. This evening, Kyle Lax with Davenport, our financial advisor, will kick off this effort as well as the public hearing. Good evening, Kyle.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council, and certainly city manager and members of the public. Again, Kyle Lax with Davenport. Nice to see you as always. To the manager's point, you may recall we were here last with David Rose, my colleague, on June 3rd. introducing this concept that in the way Suffolk moves forward in a very methodical manner after you've adopted your budget we then move forward with the capital funding phase which we're doing right now and so again the action this evening after the public hearing is there's an ordinance City Council can adopt that will fund fully the bond funded portion of your CIP that was adopted in your budget and CIP roughly $35 million of new money projects that, again, were included within your adopted budget and CIP. I think, again, as a little bit of background, as you think about this, again, the city enjoys three AAA credit ratings. We think the actions both in your budget and this evening help to support those AAA credit ratings. Those AAA credit ratings allow you as a city to go borrow for important projects like these in the most cost-effective and flexible manner that you can. You as a city are in compliance with all your financial policies. You have been for a number of years. And so, again, this is part of the normal course of what you as a city do in funding your capital program. Also within the authorization is an ability to refinance debt to the extent that there is an ability to do that. We don't right now see that for the general fund. Again, this is a general fund component. We certainly are watching that closely. And we'll report back through the administration to you and city council to the extent we see that opportunity. And so with that, Mr. Mayor, members of council, certainly happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Okay, thank you, Kyle. Council, we'll wait at the public hearing. Madam Clerk, will you please explain the timing system?

This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address and we'll have three minutes to offer their comments.

This is a public hearing. Will the first speaker please come forward and provide their name and address? Do we have anyone present who would like to speak to this ordinance? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. Council, an ordinance has been presented for your consideration. Council Member Williams? Move for approval. A motion for approval from Council Member Williams. Vice Mayor Ward? Second. Second from Vice Mayor Ward. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Member, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to 0.

Our next public hearing is an ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a daycare, family day home, 5 to 12 children on property located at 113 Mallard Drive, zoning map 25E, parentheses 3B, parcel 1, account number 25, 3252300, this is CUP 202610. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Kevin Wine, Director of Planning and Community Development will provide the project overview.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. As stated, this is a request to establish a family day home for the keeping of five to 12 children at 113 Mallard Drive, that is in the Burnett's Mill subdivision. for the business named Busy Bees Learning Experience. The property is located within the central growth area and just off of Godwin Boulevard there, like I said, in the Burnett's Mill subdivision just north of the Route 58 bypass. It's a designated suburban use district and it is zoned RC, that's our residential compact zoning district. So the applicant in this case already operates as a licensed family day home for four children all under the age of five. They're looking to expand that operation to keep up to 12 children for daytime care infants through infants to age nine. It's operated by the applicant and they do not anticipate any additional employees needed at this time due to the staff the specific state ratio requirements that are dependent on a child's age. Here you can see the proposal sketch plan is provided by the applicant. The property itself is 1.18 acres. They have five spaces either on site or right there on the street that can help serve the use. They will have a 2,000 square foot fence play area at the rear of the property. And they indoors, well here we can take a look at the play area real quick here. Here's a look at that backyard and the fence play area. On the interior, They will be providing over 1,000 square feet that will serve the use, including portions of the great room and kitchen. So this item was considered by the Planning Commission at their meeting last month, or I'm sorry, back in May. Excuse me. And by a vote of seven to zero, the Planning Commission has brought it to you all this evening with their recommendation of approval. As well, staff has evaluated this application in accordance with the Unified Development Ordinance and the criteria that we review when considering conditional use permits and we are recommending its approval to you all this evening as well. That concludes my Presentation on this item. I'll be happy to stand by at the conclusion of the public hearing Thank You mr. Wine before we open a public hearing madam clerk.

We please explain the timing system This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and address we will have a 10 minute period for the proponents a 15 minute period for those in opposition and then an additional five minutes for rebuttal and

This is a public hearing. Will the first speaker please come forward and provide your name and address, and let's just speak in favor of this ordinance.

Good evening, my name is Rebecca Faulkner. My address is 113 Mallard Drive and that's here in Suffolk, zip code 23434. I come to you today on behalf of Busy Bees Learning Experience. We was established October the 31st, 2022. We saw the need that I needed to be home with my middle and high schooler children. Contrary to belief, you would think that I needed to be home during the elementary school years. I have always been my children's physical and sole provider, during to us being a military family. During that time, I developed a passion for childcare and obtained numerous of trainings and certifications. My very first family has been with me from the beginning. They now have a preschooler that is striving in Suffolk public school system. I was able to provide him with a strong foundation to be ready for preschool. When he left my care, his family was confident that he was ready for preschool. This reflects my mission statement. I will always provide a safe and nurturing family day home where children can learn, grow, and strive through play, creativity, and positive relationships. I'm requesting the expansion of my current licensed family day home due to the need to provide a larger capacity for my current families. With this expansion, my current families will be able to remain with me as they grow their family. For an example, I do have a family now that's expecting their second child in July. Providing care for their oldest in the expansion will allow me to provide additional care, keeping the family together. I'm honored to be a recipient of the Minus 9 to 5 pilot program and the Economic Development Authority Family Day Home Grant. The pilot program gave my family day home business a solid foundation by providing resources, educational materials for my family day home. Also, they help with licensing and financial support. The EDA funded my entire cause for my conditional use permit. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Thank you. We have our next speaker to speak in favor of this ordinance.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council.

My name is Jerron Vanderhall. Address is 855 West Brambleton Street, Norfolk, Virginia, 23510. I serve as the Child Care Capacity Coordinator for Minus 9 to 5, as previously mentioned by Ms. Rebecca Faulkner. Home-based child care is often the first door working families can walk through. Flexible hours, personal attention, provides in every neighborhood across our city and downtown. When we invest in home-based providers through training, licensing support, and fair reimbursement, we help to nurse working families who are working 12-hour shifts or a warehouse worker starting at 5 a.m. or the single parent pinching to work two jobs. This means more child care slots sooner, closer to home. It means Suffolk becomes a city where economic opportunity isn't blocked by the simple lack of somewhere safe for your child to be. Strong families build strong neighborhoods. Investing in home-based childcare is an investment in every parent trying to do right by their family and their job. I ask you to support this expansion for the parents doing everything right and just need a safe place for their child to land. Thank you.

Thank you. For the next speaker to speak in favor. Do we have anyone else present who would like to speak in favor of this ordinance? Hearing none, do we have anyone who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Is there anyone present who would like to speak in opposition? Hearing no additional speakers, this public hearing is now closed. Council, an ordinance has been presented for your consideration. Council Member Bennett. Move for approval. Got a motion for approval from Council Member Bennett, Council Member Rector,

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Before I second that motion, I would like to make a couple of comments. First, I want to congratulate the EDA on launching this program to facilitate the establishment of more daycare in our city. From serving on the Hampton Roads Workforce Development Council and being associated with our own workforce council here in Suffolk and also with the Hampton Roads Alliance, I can promise you that we spend a huge amount of time discussing about the shortage of quality daycare that exists not only in Suffolk but all across our region. It is so critical for workforce development and for people that want to get to work to know that their children are being provided for in a safe and healthy environment. I mean, I know that when my children were coming along, it was a great comfort to me to know that I did not have to worry about their well-being and I could concentrate on what I was doing to try to put food on the table for my family. I hope that we get to use the rest of it. We have a total of five, correct, Ms. Days? Ten. Okay, so let's bring on some more. And with that, I will enthusiastically second the motion.

Okay, we have a motion on the floor and a second. Do we have any further discussion? Hearing none, council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 8-0.

Our next public hearing is an ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a solar energy facility on property located on Old Myrtle Road, zoning map 22, parcel 3, account number 25195500. This is CUP 2026-12. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Mr. Kevin Wine, Director of Planning and Community Development has the overview.

Thank you again, Mr. Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. As stated, this is a conditional use permit request submitted by the applicant New Leaf Solar to develop a solar energy facility on Old Myrtle Road. The property is located outside of our growth area and is designated in the 2045 comprehensive plan as rural agricultural. The property is zoned a agricultural zoning district. Here you can see an outline of the property as it sits there with a little bit of frontage on Old Myrtle Road, but it gets larger as you get to the back of the property. So what are they proposing in this case? It's a three megawatt solar energy facility that will consist of 12 string inverters and one transformer that would be on a central pad. The property is about 48 acres itself. The solar facility would take up about 26.48 acres. of that total site. And just to make you aware, this was submitted prior to July 1, so as it relates to the new provisions that came into effect in state code on July 1, they would not be subject to those. So here we have the sketch plan, the conceptual layout provided by the applicant. This being a solar facility that is under five megawatts, They've demonstrated that they can meet our setbacks as it relates to that. That would be 150 feet off the road, 150 feet from adjacent residential uses, and 50 feet from non-residential uses. And those inverters associated with the project have to be 400 feet from all property lines. Here you can see that central pad where you have the inverters and the transformer. So they have provided us some visual renderings. Here you can see they've showed that there's existing mature vegetation in place that will block any of the facility on the other side of that mature vegetation from this view. Once again, matured vegetation that would limit any visibility of the actual solar arrays. And the same here. Here we have a picture, this is from White Drive. Once again, demonstrates that there's mature vegetation in place that will be preserved that will screen the site. As with all solar facilities during construction, we are very sensitive to the rural areas of the city, seeing an increase in construction traffic and wanna make sure that is handled delicately and safely. As such, our traffic engineers division has taken a look at the hall route as proposed and the safest route to get construction traffic there. That would be south along Old Myrtle Road from Route 460 and then back that way as well. This would be a condition and is a staff recommended condition should this application be approved. As with all solar facilities and with our new regulations as it relates to noise, they have provided a noise exhibit. Here you can see the noise that would be generated from the use concentrated around those inverters and the transformer in the middle of the site with no noise creep occurring to any adjacent properties. So staff has evaluated this application and we've looked at our conditional use permit criteria in the Unified Development Ordinance and additionally the supplemental use criteria that we have as it relates to solar energy facilities. They've demonstrated that they can meet all of those. and we are recommending its approval. The Planning Commission at their meeting on June 16th, 2026 by a vote of seven to zero have moved this application forward to you all with their recommendation of denial. I did wanna share with you and I'm sure the applicant will get in to this a little bit as well. They have provided us some updated documentation as it relates to some of the outreach that they've conducted and they'll be happy to touch on that for you all. That concludes my presentation on this item. I'll be happy to stand by at the conclusion of the public hearing should you have any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wine. Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, will you please explain the timing system?

This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address. We will have a 10-minute period for the proponents, a 15-minute period for those in opposition. and then an additional five minutes.

This is a public hearing. Will the first speaker please come forward and provide their name and address, and that is to speak in favor of this ordinance.

Hi, my name is Jessie Robinson, 4705 Brentwood Road in Durham, North Carolina. Thank you for y'all's time today. I am a senior project developer with New Leaf Energy. This company has experience of over 40 years developing solar projects across the nation. We've developed over a thousand megawatts of projects. I personally have been developing in Virginia for six years. The three megawatt project proposed tonight will be participating in the shared solar program with Dominion Energy. So this allows folks to subscribe to the system if they're a Dominion Energy bill user. and receive a savings on their electric bill of about 10 to 20%. This project will also just be contributing to having a diverse grid where we will have some alternative energy in addition to other uses on Dominion's grid. In terms of community outreach, first I'll state we chose this site as well because it's well screened and we would be able to site the inverters in a location where it could not be heard to surrounding neighbors. This site has been logged and was replanted about 10 years ago. So there's existing mature trees already on site that can help screen the project. In terms of community outreach, there are no requirements by the city to reach out to folks, but we definitely consider it important and did do this as it's a typical part of our process. We held two community meetings. We reached out to 30 adjacent parcels surrounding the property. including Western Branch Baptist Church. The first meeting was in October of last year. There were six attendees. We held a second meeting as there were additional questions from neighbors surrounding stormwater design. So once we had completed those studies and had a more detailed plan, we held a second meeting for folks to attend. We invited the same group of people. That was on March 30th. There were three attendees. After the meeting, Mr. Smith, one of the neighbors, asked for copies of our threat endangered species and wetland report. So we emailed those and offered to meet with him on site. We also looked at changing our access road as this came up in discussion at the meeting. We ultimately were not able to do so because of our point of interconnection with Dominion Energy. Once you're in study, you cannot move it more than two poles. And so we are tied into the current location. Directly after the Planning Commission meeting, I heard some from folks at the meeting last month who I had not heard from before. So I was able to catch two of them after the meeting to just talk briefly in the hallway. I spoke with Mr. Bauer and Mr. David Reimann, who are adjacent neighbors. They expressed visibility concerns. so um we submitted an updated landscaping plan to the city in addition to the evergreen loblolly pines that we'll have for screening the site we're also adding some low-growing shrubs in certain locations to further screen visibility and that includes in the southwest corner of the site which is closest to the church in the northwest corner near mr ryman's property and then along the entire southern fence line to further screen from residents there. We don't believe the project will be visible with the existing vegetation, but we're happy to provide additional vegetation to help ease some concerns, and we're also I'm happy to add a privacy screening lining on the fence around the entire site, at least for when the low growing shrubs are getting established to just help further screen visibility from their surrounding neighbors. And I'm happy to answer more questions about that. After the planning commission meeting, I did email the pastor of the church, Western Branch Baptist Church, and sent a letter to the deacon and adjacent neighbor, Mr. Bauer. Copies of the letter and email are in the outreach packet, offering to meet with the church if that was of interest. I did not hear back. I also sent a letter to folks within a mile of the site who signed Mr. Smith's petition. I provided my contact information so that folks could reach out if they would like to speak with me. I did not hear back from folks. Our noise study was completed by GZA Geoenvironmental, their firm with 60 years of experience. They completed the noise study for this project and put together a memo for me to read at tonight's meeting. So for sake of time, I'll just include a few excerpts. Per the acoustic report, ambient sound levels were collected on the project site near the property line of 6800 Old Myrtle Road, approximately 1500 feet away from Old Myrtle Road and 1800 feet from White Drive. Current ambient noise at the site was collected during the quietest hours of 4 to 7 a.m. and was 32 decibels. Even at the closest evaluated residence, the predicted project sound level is approximately 15 decibels below the applicable 45 decibel limit. This represents a substantial margin of compliance. The highest predicted sound level occurred at a location nearest the residence at 6800 Old Myrtle Road, where the modeled sound level was 30 decibels, which is similar to a rustle of leaves or soft whisper. the residents at 6822 Old Myrtle Road was predicted to experience a sound level of 19 decibels. We looked at this project, this home specifically after the planning commission as a community member mentioned that their son has autism and enjoys sitting in the backyard and enjoying the peace and quiet and we wanted to ensure this project would not disrupt his use of the backyard. So the results show that the combined sound level with the solar facility operating would increase ambient conditions by 0.1 to 1.7 decibels, depending on the location. The National Hearing Conservation Association indicates that one decibel increase is generally considered imperceptible. a three decibel increase is barely perceptible. Since the highest predicted increase is 1.7 decibels, the change in sound level would fall between imperceptible and barely perceptible to the average listener. So in closing, Ms. Taylor would also like to speak, but I'll just state that Ms. Taylor should have the ability to use her land as she sees fit as long as it's within the law. The city's zoning ordinance was established for this purpose to set regulations on what a project has to follow to be able to be built and developed responsibly. We've tried to engage with the community as much as possible. I understand some folks are nervous about this project, but we have done our best to design it so that there will not be impact. Our project meets and in most cases exceeds the ordinance requirements. We are 15 decibels below the requirement for noise. The inverter setback is 400 feet to 960 feet, which exceeds the requirement. We are exceeding the residential setbacks by an additional 200 feet from what is required. And along the road, we are exceeding setbacks by more than 500 feet from what is required. Because of this rigorous due diligence, the city staff has recommended this project for approval as they consider it in compliance with the comp plan and zoning ordinance, which is designed to protect neighbors. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker to speak in favor.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, and members of city council. My name is Priscilla Taylor and I live at 107 Bobby Jones Drive in Portsmouth. For many years, my husband and I lived next to a neighbor who did not maintain their property in the way that we thought they should. The grass needed cutting, buildings needed repair, and the yard needed to be cleaned up, but it wasn't my property. We didn't have the right to tell that neighbor what to do with their land simply because we didn't like what we saw. What my husband and I could do was put up a fence and plan ahead and enjoy our property. And that experience taught me an important lesson about property rights. And today I'm asking you to respect my right to make a lawful and responsible use of my property. I understand some neighbors are concerned that this solar project will change the community, but the project is tucked away. The property is surrounded by large trees and dense foliage. The solar panels will not be visible from the street and once built, the project will not change the look or character of the community. What it will do is generate electricity to help power hundreds of homes. And recent legislation from the Commonwealth of Virginia has made clear that solar power is an important part of meeting Virginia's future power needs. People may not like the idea of solar panels, and I respect that, but personal preference should not determine how someone else uses personal property when that use is responsible, screened from view, and benefits hundreds of families. I respectfully request that you approve this project. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. That concludes the time for our proponents. Do we have anyone present who would like to speak in opposition?

My name is Jimmy Smith, adjacent property owner 6838 Old Myrtle Road. I have a package here of the animals, vegetation, and everything that will be affected that's on the endangered species list, as well as everything that's going to be in this project around this project that's combustible that will affect 12 homes and a church. With that, in our quiet community here by Western Branch Baptist Church, we have become accustomed to peace, quiet, and tranquility. We live in harmony with all the plants, the birds, and animals. We have bear, deer, turkey, rabbits, squirrels, eagles, hawks, and many more bird species in our yard every day. God did not plan for his beautiful creation to be destroyed and replaced with solar panels, which destroy what I just described. From our beautiful sky, these panels appear to be beautiful lake, but draw birds to their death, which we have migrating woodcock, snipe, and wood duck in this area all the time. Flooding in this neighborhood we experience at every rain event. It only has to be a few inches and the road and ditches flood in numerous areas on Old Myrtle Road. The city posts high water signs all the time. The water runoff from this development will be significant. This area for development is the low point prior to entering the swamp by Western Branch Church. build up the access of this property, which they displayed, will flood my home and four other homes adjacent on Old Myrtle Road. We have four tenths of a mile of runoff that comes to this swamp every rain event. The families adjacent to this with the noise will be affected by the noise for 365 days a year. We will have no days off listening to rotator motors following the sun. It will destroy our quiet, peaceful way of life that we have become accustomed to. We chose to live here and enjoy our senior life.

Temperatures.

On a sunny 100-degree day, a solar panel will typically reach an internal temperature between 145 and 163 degrees, based on Google. These panels run significantly hotter due to the dark silicon cells absorb solar radiation and traps the heat. I have an AccuRite digital thermometer in my backyard currently on July 4th at 1.11 p.m. outside temperature 100 degrees, humidity 61 degrees, heat index 130 degrees. Imagine having solar panels next to me and they will be less than 120 feet. Road conditions. Old Myrtle Road needs major improvements to support heavy haul trucks delivering panels. Have you checked it out lately? The sides of the roads are collapsing. Fire hazards. I have bought examples here of what's being proposed. They are not cleaning the area. So we are going to be entirely surrounded with this type of fire material around our homes. If this solar panel comes in contact or catches fire, there is no access to fight the fire. This will jeopardize everyone in the area, including Western Branch Church. Fire Trace International, October 20th, 22, when I quote, when a solar farm catches on fire, millions of dollars of equipment can be destroyed in a matter of minutes. continue with that potential loss of life, wildfires, and other environmental impacts, and the dangers become more apparent. This is especially true for farms located in rural areas where emergency response teams are miles away. Our response team is miles away.

We have our next speaker, please, to speak in opposition.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. My name is Tony Bauer. I reside at 4264 White Drive in Suffolk. Just to amplify what Mr. Smith was saying about our road, if you haven't been out on Old Merle Road lately, and there will be a lot of construction rigs, a number of them, to create this project. There's only one access area, and that access area is just mere feet from Western Branch Baptist Church. That church was established in 1779, and it is a big, beautiful church you're all welcome to attend. Please join us. Across the street from that access is a 200-year-old manicured cemetery. It is beautiful. It's five acres. And, yes, Ms. Jessie Robinson did send a letter or talk to the pastor or talk to the other deacons in the church. We were already under the understanding that it was accepted. We were opposed to this because of any noise factor, because of the access of trucks going in and out. That church is a beautiful church. It's a sanctuary, and it's kind of a high mark of our area, well-known. So the congregation does not want the project, and so we did not respond because we'd already made that message, although Ms. Robinson was very polite. I'm also a resident. I'm one of the 13 properties that surround this project. No, I don't want the industrial truck traffic, the noise, anything to do with any glare coming through the trees, any of the other associated issues that arrive from having such a project. I live there because I love being in the country. I love the sanctuary and the quiet. That's why I'm there. I think a few people want to speak behind me, so I'm going to make some room. Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. My name is Sherman Vincent, and I live at 6800 Old Myrtle Road. My main concern is is the noise and property value. The first meeting that was held, and I voiced my opinion. And one thing, Mr. Justice, you know, I like the question. You said we chose this particular. I don't think you just chose it. You all solicit. Y'all mail things. I get things from you at least twice a month.

Sir, sir, just address the council, please.

Okay. I wanted to point that out. that they mail, and I brought, I have a larger parcel that's adjacent to it, and I get, every month, I get at least eight. So, you know, I want to point that out. They just didn't choose it. They're soliciting. Now, like Tommy said, we choose the neighbors and myself to live in the country and the rural for certain purposes. quietness, the peace. And people, when you buy a parcel of land, you check it out. People that live in historical districts, you can't change the outside. But you've got to stay within certain parameters, just like living a planned urban development. So I look at this the same. What we're doing here is changing from agricultural to sort of industrial. You know, I didn't choose to live next to an industrial park. So I hope the council will please, you know, now I do. I'm all in favor of a solar farm. And I got I mean, another place, even myself that I might consider. But in this close knit neighborhood, I don't think it's the ideal place. You know, for one, you know, I hate to We say that Ms. Taylor can't do to take money out of her pocket, but her salary will be going up. And what would the property value of our homes would be doing every year? She's going to be increasing, but due to this solar facility, our property values will be decreasing. We'll be decreasing. So I hope that members of this council will consider. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker to speak in opposition.

Good evening, Catherine Amory. I live at 6512 Old Myrtle Road, so I am a resident near this. Essentially, I agree with a lot of what I'm hearing from my neighbors, which is this project ruins the aesthetic of the neighborhood. I also don't believe that there's been enough information or what information has been provided regarding the environmental impact Impact of this is something that's going to be good for the community while this project will enrich the landowner It does nothing to enrich the city of Suffolk in general And I personally think these kind of projects are a gateway to other projects of this sort because you're asking to put yet another solar Facility in this area. We've already got one on 460 which quite frankly in my opinion is really ugly But you're asking to put another one in the area so to me This is a gateway to open it up further because next you're going to want to put a data center in my backyard So I politely ask the council to deny this project. Thank you.

Thank you Next speaker, please

My name is Kelly Holland. My husband Jimmy and I live at 6834 Old Myrtle Road. We bought our home in 99 not because of the house but because we love the peace and quiet of our neighborhood. We strongly oppose the solar farm and I ask all my neighbors here tonight who oppose it that won't be able to speak to please stand now. We are concerned about the fire threat. Solar farms do catch on fire. I work in Chesapeake and the one across from my work caught on fire last summer. I'm concerned about our property value and the noise. Even if the noise is within allowable level, there is still a hum, enough to drive anyone crazy. Our neighbors and ourselves all have pets. Their hearing is better than ours. How will that affect them? Our road cannot handle the five to ten trucks per day for six to eight months, as Jesse has stated. We all have shallow wells. How will our water quality be affected? Even with testing, the damage will already be done. Lastly, what about all the animals that call the area home? We all love watching them and don't want them displaced. This is our home where we come to relax and find peace in our yards. I cannot stress enough how much this has put stress on us. Ms. Taylor and Jesse have both stated they want to be good neighbors. If they truly mean that, I beg them to withdraw the permit request. Thank you.

The next speaker, please. Do we have anyone else present who would like to speak in opposition?

Good evening, Chairman, Mayor. My name is Dr. Andy Perotti. I'm glad to be here tonight. I decided to come and speak to you about this topic because I was reading through some of our preparation materials that are sent out for when you come and attend the council. And it hit me because I happened to be reading the budget for the school board. And I noticed that there was a rather large expenditure for Well, that's kind of a problem in my area. And I'm also doing some research on the side right now for concerns over things like battery storage areas. And all of those were from a knowledge base I had in the past. But then I saw something that really struck me. There is a paper in there that talks about the public, I guess, exchange that was done with members of the council. to the developers about what the plans were. And one of the councilwomen asked clearly, well, what about rainwater runoff? What kind of impact is there from that? And there was a monosyllabic answer of no. I'm kind of wordy, so I was surprised anybody could be that short. And then I thought to myself, I don't think that's right. And so I decided to go and do a little referencing. So the reason I'm here tonight is not necessarily to say yes or no, but to let you know what concerns I would have about the project and what opportunities there might be for the project. And it may be looking at some of the opportunities in a different model. What I did is I have handouts for you that I will leave with the gentleman here. I ran out of toner. That's why I was a little bit late. So I have one paper, the best paper, that I wasn't able to copy. So I will make sure you get it. The papers I was looking at were refereed papers, which means it wasn't just something off the internet or my feeling about this. It's about real hard science. The solar energy topic is a very hot topic universally. There's a lot of data coming out of Europe, and it has been for many, many years. And what it does is it kind of encapsulates a lot of the concerns that people have here that are good concerns, but some of the concerns may not be as significant as they think. On the other hand, there are concerns that are not being addressed. One of the things was that it really hit me is I used to work in a research lab when I was in the Navy. And there was one of our sister labs. They used to call us the seven dwarfs. It was seven laboratories that nobody knew what to do with and knew what we were really doing. And one of them was called assisted energy or directed energy. And it had to do with all radio frequency type exchanges for different purposes. And I will tell you, I learned a great deal about some of the impacts that are untoward or not expected. And I'll give you an example why it's really becomes important. And it links in with a concern about also the ecology and the conservation of plants and the need for, or the ability to continue farming in some of these areas while still having a solar presence. There was a tsunami in Thailand and a group of us were called in and it was a group from all over the world looking at ways to assist with communication, everything from sending up helium balloons to be able to get an over the horizon capture And we had people from Google Earth and all of the big players. And everybody tested out their radar and their rays. And they were very interesting. And like the solar power, it's kind of almost a miracle when you think about it. And to reflect my own personal bias, I have a house with solar power. I love it. I love it. but it isn't configured like in a farm. And with the farm comes other concerns that it may also tag into things like batteries farms. We're getting a lot of farms that aren't really of great value to the people. So when I looked further into it, we decided, or not decided, but we discovered something. When all of these smart players got together with their wonder toys, all of them worked individually, but when you put them in an array together, in an amalgam, what you had was chaos, because so many of these rays got out into the atmosphere, and you lost signals. So what are you hearing when you hear hum? Are you hearing the sound of an array emitting from all these units? One of the chief things that was discovered by me when I went back to go and look at the science is There are concerns for runoff. There are concerns for changes in weather. And what happens is you get micro weather currents. So you can have a type of weather area right over and immediately adjacent to these arrays that is different than what the rest of the neighborhood is experiencing. So there are some concerns with this. I brought other literature that will talk about these concerns in great detail, but also mitigations. Part of the mitigation we know of is we're talking about the, oh God, what is that, the bank. my friend and colleague over here for Nansiman River, I'm supporting her as well, we're talking about bringing in and keeping our tree cover, our green mass, but we also were looking at how is this impacting the insects and the birds and everything else. Well, what we found with this is that it's a factor of density. If you get a solar array that's heavily dense and you will get the noise, you will get the negative aspects to a climate effect and also water runoff. Tremendous impacts at different levels based on density.

Ma'am, I'm sorry, but that concludes your time.

Oh, dear. Well, let me leave this behind, and it's your paperwork, and there is a couple of recommendations because I thought I might run over it that I put in the columns.

Okay, that concludes our time for questions. Opposition will now move to a five-minute rebuttal period.

Oh, the basket. Thank you.

Evening. I'm Shane Fushi with Hurt and Profit, and I am a professional engineer here in the Commonwealth for over 20 years now. I would like to address the concerns about the stormwater. As you can look at the plan here, there are four individual BMPs that line the western portion of the property. This property trains from the east to the west. And all of the areas that the panels will be in in the biggest portion there of the property are going to drain to those BMPs. These BMPs are designed to decrease the stormwater runoff. And they actually detain the water and they actually serve as a first point of entrapment for anything that could come down through that area. They are then detained in the ponds and then released at a rate that's actually less than the flow in the existing condition now. And this will help to disparage any concerns about flooding or impacts to the other properties there. We are required by the state and the federal government to install these BMPs to help with that flow and to help with the project. And I'm happy to answer any questions as it comes from those stormwater issues.

Thank you, sir. We still have three minutes of some change and rebuttal.

Thank you, Mayor Duman, members of city council, staff. My name is Grady Palmer. My business address, 222 Central Park Avenue, and I'm here tonight in the place of Steve Romine, who couldn't be here and sends his regards. One of the things I just want to note that there's legitimate concerns about utility scale solar, and those are very different than what is being presented tonight when you're dealing with community and shared solar. Utility-scale solar, generally hundreds of acres, has generated enormous stormwater issues. One of the benefits of these community-scale shared solar projects is they're a very small footprint, and they actually benefit the citizens of Suffolk. I know you've heard several presentations over the last couple years for shared solar, that citizens and residents can subscribe and earn savings from their power bills. And that's an important part that doesn't exist on the utility scale solar side. So I just wanted to just bring that to your attention and remind you that that is a significant difference. A lot of the concerns that we've heard over the years are about the utility scale and the change that those bring to communities. This is actually a timbered site. in my view, a perfect site if you're going to have solar on a scale like this. You know, a timber site is one that every 10 to 20 years, you know, goes through radical environmental change when the trees are cut down. And so that's actually, you know, to put this in place and to avoid, you know, further timbering of the property and to create an environment where residents aren't going to see it, they're not going to hear it. Essentially, once it's constructed, they won't know it's there. If there's a perfect site, I think this is a good site for community solar. But just keep in mind, this would benefit Suffolk residents in the reduction of their power bills. And so with that, I'll stand by, ask for your approval. Thank you.

I have a next speaker to speak during the rebuttal period. We've got a little over a minute. Anyone else present who would like to speak during rebuttal? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. Council, an ordinance has been presented for your consideration. Questions, comments, or a motion as they say. Council Member Butler-Bolo. Oops, let me get you again.

There you go. I have a couple of questions. My first question is regarding this community shared solar, because we get this term on every application. I mean, everything we've seen is fairly small scale. Can someone explain to me how that works and if it actually does work? Because we hear about it, but then we hear that it benefits somebody somewhere else. And I want to know if anybody has any evidence of actual Suffolk, Virginia electric customers that are benefiting from community shared solar.

Hey, thank you for your question. So the way it works, just to start there, is that main requirement is you have to have a Dominion Energy bill to be eligible to subscribe to the program. And then Typically how developers seek subscribers is by working with the city, like by posting an ad on their website or, sorry, like an announcement on the website or sending mailers to folks in the community. And there's no specific requirement on where you look for subscribers. Like you could go anywhere. We would start in the city of Suffolk for this project. I know that the Dominion Energy's website lists all the projects that have currently received capacity and when they plan to go online. Typically when they're closer to getting online or they're in construction is when they seek subscribers. So I don't know, we don't have a project right now in the city, so I can't speak to other developers on where their projects are at, but that could be why. If folks haven't heard from people, they're just not ready yet to reach that phase. I know there's like at least 100 megawatts that have been subscribed in Virginia. I'm not sure how many are in the city, but they're probably in the construction stage.

Okay.

All right. I have a second question. Not related, but since you're already up here. Okay. So when you and I met before, we talked about the stormwater BMPs, the stormwater and the wetlands. aspect of this particular piece of property, especially at your point of entrance. And of course, I think the whole property, if it's not wetlands, it's wetland. The entrance that you're proposing, the only way that you have end, this is what it kind of is shaped like a flag lot. You have this one entrance. Most of that is wetlands, and from listening to the neighbors, it floods on a regular basis. Have you had conversations with the Corps of Engineers on how you're going to mitigate this? I know you have the stormwater BMPs, and I wonder a lot about that, but I especially wonder about the entrance and having a road going in, which is pretty much a whole wetlands area.

I'll start answering that and then Shane, can you come up as well, our engineer? But we try to avoid wetland impacts as much as possible. So the wetlands are delineated on the portion where we come in from Old Myrtle And the road, you can see how it's kind of like curving. That's because we're trying to avoid as much impact as possible. The entire piece is not wetlands, but a good portion is. So we're trying to impact as little as possible with the location of the road and keeping it at least under 0.1 acres. We did look at changing the road. I mentioned that. And yeah, we weren't able to.

As Jesse said, everything on the site has been done to have the least impact to well and areas. Now, we are also proposing to put a geogrid under the access road so that would keep the access road at the same elevation that it currently is, and then put the gravel on that so that it wouldn't have any impacts to the downstream areas too. This, because as you know, if it's wet and if you put gravel on it, if you put your trucks or anything else on it, it's going to sink. So that geogrid will keep us from having to build that up. and then we can keep everything in place as it currently is.

Okay, all right. That's all for the moment.

Council Member Johnson.

Young lady, thank you. I'm sorry, Jessie, I couldn't remember your name. Was there any consideration given to the fact that you were in a historical area and that this church has been there since the 1700s?

So we work with a third-party hurt and profit to do archaeological research on that. First, we start with a high-level review, and then we'll do a more detailed review, typically after, if we receive CUP approval, because it's around like, well, I don't want to say the price, but tens of thousands of dollars for a more detailed archaeological study. And what they do is they look at areas within, is it 0.5 miles? 0.5 miles of the site to flag if there's archaeologically or architecturally areas of historical significance. A third party completes that study, submits it to the DHR, Department of Historical Resources, and then they tell us,

if we have to change our design to either help mitigate like visibility if there's anything significant surrounding or change our design to avoid it well my concern though is and i'm just going to make a point here because i wasn't even aware of until really recently is this is a historical church it's a amazing group of people that go to this church as well as the community people that live there and in this city this council doesn't typically go against churches but I have a real concern. To me, and I know Priscilla well too, the project is not a bad project, but the project is out of place. I'm sorry. Why do you think planning denied it 7-0? I mean, there's a reason. We are a small community and we look after our community and we support the people in this community. I'm not against solar. This particular project that really is giving me some Real problems. I have a problem just well with the runoff as well, with the roads going into it. These folks are right. The roads are not good roads. Even running trucks want to haul all this stuff to the site. It's a real problem for me. I just want to let you know that because I think it's a good project in the right spot, and particularly in this rural area of the city. It is very, very rural. The fire department worries me as well. If there is a fire, if there's an electrical problem, there is just nothing there. I've got some real concerns, and it should have concerned everyone on council too when we quickly realized that the planning commission denied it like they did. It's not that it doesn't fit the parameters of what could go there, but does it fit this community or fit that area? I'm sorry, but I have some real problems with it. All right, thank you.

Council Member Wright.

Yes, Ms. Robinson. You mentioned earlier that you did reach out to approximately, I think you said 30 residents?

30 parcels, yeah.

Right, and you said it's not a requirement. What was some of the feedback that you received, or did you receive feedback from the 30 people that you reached out to?

I heard from the folks who attended the community meetings. So there were six at the first one and three at the second. I think a lot of them were questions about understanding solar. Mr. Vincent expressed concerns about property value like he did tonight and we sent a property value report that we've had completed previously. Mr. Smith brought up at the first meeting his concerns about runoff to his property. So at the second meeting, we presented more detailed stormwater designs about how we would be designing to prevent runoff. There were questions about visibility. So we had visual simulations showing how the project would not be visible. Um, we did, we tried to do our best to address each concern. Um, and I, after the meeting we put together all of the questions that folks asked in the first meeting and our responses and that's also included in the narrative packet.

Okay. So I want to make sure, so what I'm hearing you say is most of the responses that you received to your outreach were concerns.

Yes. I mean, I would say that's typically the case. If someone's in favor, they usually just don't act, you know, versus if you don't want something, they tend to speak up.

Okay. Okay. So then my next comment is, and then I'm going to make a motion. My next comment is I went through the comments and there was not a single comment that in favor of this project. And it sounds like every interaction that you have had has not been in favor of this project. There have been concerns. And from the consensus of all of the members who stood up in this room, it seems like it's a vast majority of the residents that this is going to directly impact. And so with that, I'm gonna move that we disapprove and I am going to side with and agree with the council member who represents the area in that if the people of his community do not want this and not everyone signed up to move to an industrial environment. And so some of the comments were very compelling to me And so that is my motion. I move for disapproval.

Can we get a motion on the floor for denial? Council Member Johnson. I'll second the motion. Second from Council Member Johnson. Is there any further discussion of the motion? Council Member Rector.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with Councilman Johnson. For those out there that talk about the church, It was a little over 41 years ago I was married in that church. So I'm very familiar with Western Branch Baptist Church. And unfortunately, my mother and father-in-law who are members there have, as we say in our church now, have gone on to their greater reward as well as my sister-in-law. She has also passed. So I have no family much there anymore. I agree with Councilmember Johnson. I don't like to vote against God. Um, and this particular solar project sort of brings out what we've experienced on this council with solar projects and that even though it looks like you've, you're locating this thing far away from anything and it's not going to hurt anything. The fact that they're in this little community, that number of individual residences that just happened to surround this particular, um, site, I guess is unfortunate for, um, the site selection committee that came up with this site. It kind of reminds me of the one that I guess we had before us that was down on Great Fork Road. It looked like it was hugely isolated but there was actually a string of seven houses that were adjacent to the property and when we had our meeting just about all seven residents of that road came up and spoke very adamantly about the fact that they did not want this particular project in their backyard. So having said that, I'll probably support the motion for denial.

Council, do we have any other questions or comments? Hearing none, we have a motion on the floor for denial. Council members, prepare to vote. So a yes vote means no. Just to clarify. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

We'll now move to our next public hearing, which is a 730. We're making good time. An ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a wetlands mitigation bank within the city of Suffolk on property located at 2101 Buckhorn Drive consisting of property identified on City of Suffolk Zoning Map 30, parcel 14, and further consisting of those portions of property identified on property located at 2101 Buckhorn Drive, identified as City of Suffolk Zoning Map 30, parcel 14, and portions of property identified on Holloway County property map as a 9.92 acre portion of tax map number 6701013, an 11.9-acre portion of tax map number 67-01-016, and a 17.7-acre portion of tax map number 6701018, account number 252622000. And this is CUP 2026-4.

Mr. Manager, please provide us an overview. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Kevin Wine, Director of Planning and Community Development, has the overview.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. This is an item that you should be familiar with. We presented this to you all back in May as a significant land use item. This is a larger project, at least in area, 212 acres total. And this is for a wetlands mitigation bank that requires a conditional use permit within the city and this property is located in the rural agricultural land use district, and it is zoned A, agricultural. It consists of multiple properties, several of which portions of are in Isle of Wight County, but the bulk of the project is within the city of Suffolk. So here you can see the parcels involved that larger Purple outlined one is what we're talking about today. That's the 212 acres That are within the city of Suffolk So here are some of the existing conditions as it relates to the site there have been ongoing civil culture operations for the kind of harvesting and cutting of loblolly pines that are located on the property. As a part of this request, they will be restoring the areas that have been damaged by that ongoing civil culture operation. That's 204 acres that would ultimately be utilized as the Myrtle Mitigation Bank. I'll get into what that means in a moment. And then there would be a almost eight acre area. You can see that outlined in that green triangle that would be utilized as an ecological restoration project. So the Myrtle mitigation bank is comprised of two separate sub projects as I noted the mitigation bank itself the larger portion of the project who earned four acres and that smaller Almost eight acre piece that would be that restoration project so what they have in common would be they both restore the wetland functions and the values of the wetlands that are on the site and They permanently protect these areas as natural resources through a conservation easement and they would be subject to the same federal and state oversight as it relates to permitting on the federal level on record of engineers and at the state level the Department of Environmental Quality or DEQ. So they differ in the fact that the mitigation bank will provide compensatory wetland mitigation credits available for purchase. This is what we see when there is development within your development areas and on occasion they'll run into generally isolated wetland areas, smaller, usually less than an acre, in which they need to seek mitigation through the same agencies that I noted. at the state and federal level to impact in order to pave way for their development. But Virginia has a one-for-one rule. You cannot impact wetlands without, one, restoring them elsewhere, or in this case, purchasing into a mitigation bank that ensures that they're held in perpetuity as wetlands and taken care of as wetlands. The smaller ecological restoration project this will allow wetland mitigation credit for a singular Customer or project and then they at this point have not been identified So there will be some some land disturbance associated with this as they look to to kind of grade and fill some ditched areas and plug some areas that have come up as depressions to ensure that they can ultimately have a healthy wetland area here that meets those stringent requirements of DEQ and the Army Corps of Engineers as it relates to establishing a wetlands mitigation bank. Some of the things that we'll include the planting of a good amount of native plants and some wetland seedlings, fallen tree stumps, woody debris piles, snags, things that you would see in a natural wetland environment. As it relates to the replanting details, ultimately 245 acres, so that includes that acreage outside of the city, of wetland seeding plants, 12 species, of various grasses, rushes, and sedges, 244 acres, almost 245 acres of woody wetland plantings to include 12 species of trees, almost five acres of woody upland plantings and seven different species of trees, and then almost an acre of herbaceous wetland plantings that includes four different species of vegetation. So staff has evaluated this application as it relates to our criteria outlined within the Unified Development Ordinance for the issuance of conditional use permits and we believe it aligns with the criteria outlined there and is compliant with the 2045 comp plan as well. The Planning Commission at their meeting last month on June 16th have moved to recommend approval of this application. by a vote of seven to zero with the conditions as outlined in staff's report. That concludes my overview on this item. I'll be happy to stand by at the conclusion of the public hearing. Should you have any questions?

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wine. Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, will you please explain the timing system?

This is a public hearing, and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address. We will have a 10-minute period for the proponents, a 15-minute period for those in opposition, and then an additional five minutes for rebuttal.

This is a public hearing. Will the first speaker please come forward and provide your name and address? And that is to speak in favor of this ordinance.

Good evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor, City Manager and City Council members. My name is Beth Cross and I'm speaking on behalf of Nanceman River Preservation Alliance, located at 8881 Eclipse Drive. And as NRPA, we recognize that the proposed mitigation bank represents a great environmental gain for our city currently. So thank you for moving forward with this important project. Our concern is not with the restoration project, but of course with the future use of the credits. And so we urge tonight that great discernment will be used so that we do not have future loss of wetlands or habitat. Today's restoration success cannot become tomorrow's excuse for destruction when it comes to wetlands and habitat. Thank you so much for your focus on the restoration of our wetlands and our watershed in general, and for your commitment to protecting Suffolk's watershed.

Thank you. We had our next speaker to speak in favor.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is James Parker. My address is 116 South Wilton Road in Richmond, Virginia. I'm also an owner of the subject property located at 2101 Buckhorn Drive. I'm also the owner of Clearwater Ventures, the project sponsor. Clearwater has sponsored dozens of wetland and stream restoration projects throughout the Commonwealth. This project... The two primary goals for the proposed use are, as stated previously, to restore impaired wetlands on site and reestablish the beneficial functions and values of those aquatic resources. Also, we will permanently protect and conserve the restored wetlands under a conservation easement, which will provide those benefits into perpetuity. The project does comply with the 24 20 2045 comprehensive plan by preserving the property's rural and natural character and also protecting water quality on site and to those around it. The benefits to the community are multiple and many. Certainly there'll be storm water and flood water retention benefits, habitat diversity by Removing a monoculture pine plantation and replacing it with a native hardwood bottomland system, including vegetation. It will also improve wildlife habitat and corridors, as well as, of course, the water quality in the watershed. We're good neighbors. These projects are restorative and conserve these critical natural resources, and often enhance values of the property owners around it. Appreciate your consideration, support of the project, and conditional use permit. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker to speak in favor. Do we have anyone else present who would like to speak in favor of this ordinance?

It just so happens the number one recommendation for solar farms is the use of the plants. And mitigation techniques are very popular and very useful.

I'm sorry, please give us your name and address again.

Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, Andy Perotti. And 2655 Riverwatch Drive, Suffolk.

Thank you, ma'am.

And in favor? And everything that we were hearing, of course, is very accurate. But what is also accurate is the number one recommendation for use under solar panels that are not affixed to the buildings was essentially greens. And they even have in your readings crops that if someone wants to continue farming or what livestock could potentially go in there, but it's all supported by the different types of greens and grasses and trees, because they do require a certain amount of shade, so they literally don't burn out. So I thought that would be an important add-on to not only be important for this work, but also, by the way, the number one was greenery. The lowest or the caution of what you not to put under solar panels was rocks. what we hear from what was now not to be was the cheap solution, but the least appropriate, according to the literature currently. So you will see that in your packets. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker, speaking in favor, anyone else like to speak in favor of this ordinance? Hearing none, do we have anyone who would like to speak in opposition? Is there anyone present who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. Council, questions, comments, or a motion? Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Move to approve.

Got a motion for approval from Council Member Butler-Barlow, Council Member Wright.

Second.

Second from Council Member Wright. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Member, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

We have no ordinances, nor do we have any resolutions this evening. So we do have moving to staff reports. We have one staff report, which would be an update on our Suffolk passenger rail. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, city council has initiated an effort to explore the feasibility to add a passenger rail station in the city of Suffolk. This evening, you'll receive a presentation on the work completed to date, results of that effort, and next steps for consideration. I would like to ask Julie Tim, our consultant with Moffitt & Nickel, to provide the presentation. Good evening, Julie.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. It's a pleasure to be here today. Such a lively meeting. And I think what it might be my favorite topic ever is talking about transportation and new train stations. I think I've heard that y'all are very interested in this as well. About a year ago, you heard a presentation about a possible rail station being considered by you or being advocated for for the city of Suffolk. The question became, as you were thinking about a possible train station, what are the steps you need to get there? Part of that is, do you have a location to put it that could fit a passenger rail station? Do you have ridership that would actually ride it if you put it here? Is the cost reasonable to put it here? And before you can advocate for a train station, you need to answer those questions. So approximately a year ago, we were engaged to begin the study to look at those very three points. This presentation is a summary of the conclusions of that report and some concepts for consideration moving forward. So as you can see on the slide, there are the bullet points, the station location, ridership revenue forecast, and order of cost, order of magnitude of cost. So the first one, when we looked at possible station locations, and we don't want to necessarily narrow down or talk about specific locations at this time. We just want to know, are there any available? Are there sites possible? But to understand that, you have to know what are the engineering needs of a rail station? What are the public needs of a rail station? Part of that is to be able to have 1,000 feet of station platform. That's the current Amtrak standard. That's a long length of track or platform to put next to the railroad. You also have to be able to take the trains off of the current tracks where the passenger train would sit as people are boarding and alighting. That needs to be at least 1,100 feet. You need to make sure you have space for people to park. Not everyone's going to walk to it. You're going to have people driving from across the city and possibly the region to come to a station here. So you need plenty of places for people to park. You need access to transit for the people who do want to come in by your bus system or by park and rides or by kiss and rides or by biking. So the facility needs to have enough space for that. You need to make sure that you're not crossing over any roads where the train would sit and then stop traffic. So any roads would need to be closed if that was in case where you would put the station. So you need to have that access point. And indeed, you do have spaces like that in the vicinity. There are trade-offs that you would have to look at. It would not necessarily be uncontroversial in every case, but there are reasonable locations that could be considered for a train station in Suffolk. that could accommodate Amtrak's requirements and Norfolk Southern's requirements and the public's requirements to access the site. Now, okay, so you have the space. The question is, will anyone write it? Yes, getting right to the point, yes. You do have ridership across the country to look at projected ridership for new stations and for their current stations. The ridership that you would see in Suffolk is approximately 24,000 annual boardings. It's a decent amount of ridership, enough ridership to warrant further study. Now, in past studies, when they looked at the Commonwealth Corridor between DC and further west out to Norfolk, that's called the Commonwealth Corridor, they were looking at maybe putting a station maybe in Bowers Hill, maybe in Suffolk, maybe elsewhere. So the question is, would Suffolk be better suited than maybe another regional station as it connects to Norfolk? The study suggests that very possibly it would be. that you have a further distance from Norfolk so that the people that are currently going to Norfolk would still go to Norfolk, but you would attract more folks from the Suffolk side, from this side of the region, that might not otherwise use the train, If they had to drive to Norfolk or Newport News, they might just drive to Richmond instead. So you do have a catchment where it is reasonable you would see more ridership by having a station here. It would also generate economic development and other opportunities for workforce development. Okay, so you have ridership. The third point is how much is it going to cost? because if it's gonna cost too much money and no one can afford it, you're not gonna go there. The costs for a potential station based on current estimates, and this is an order of magnitude, is likely for the kind of Barely simple structure we're talking about, platform, a simple shelter, simple parking, not elaborate, is probably in the $50 million to $70 million range at this time. Now, those cost estimates, as we know, looking at the local economies for the past five years, especially post-COVID, have changed dramatically from year to year. So you don't want to base everything on these numbers, but this gives you an idea about the estimated cost that it could come in at. We also compared our estimates to the New River Valley and the Newport News Transportation Center and found that the cost estimates we used, which are the standard cost elements for train stations, is consistent with current and recent train stations being built or have been built recently or are under construction in the state. So it's right in alignment with what you would expect to pay. Those are all good numbers. So we have location, we have ridership, and we have reasonable costs. But that's not all you're going to need to consider. The study concluded with, yes, there is a there there. There is a reason for the city to look further at putting a station or advocating for a station in the downtown area. But it's not going to be as easy as just saying, yes, we want it. There are going to be other considerations and it will take time to come to that final decision that yes, it should go here and this is what we're gonna do. You're gonna have to look at are there possible closures, crossing closures for roads? We talked about the length of that platform. It might be that there are areas where you might not be able to have a road cross that area, you'd have to relocate. You might need to look at, as you are very sensitive to, your historic district and your historic buildings. Now this is a historic rail town, so putting a rail station here would be consistent with the nature of your downtown already. But still, you need to make sure that as it moves forward that that is considered. You don't want to, by putting something in that's such an economic value, you wouldn't want to destroy the very nature of your town. You need to look at the fact that a rail station will increase traffic. Now, there's ways to accommodate that. If there's traffic studies, you could actually have it eliminate some traffic that's coming around the area, but you'd also have some traffic coming to, to go to and from the station. That would need to be considered. It's a great opportunity for economic development. We've talked about workforce housing a lot. TOD, transit oriented development, to have a station here in Suffolk could give a good nexus for workers going to and from this area, to Richmond, to Norfolk, and having that access point to increase that economic development, increase housing opportunities right here in Suffolk. And that's an opportunity to do more economic development policies, to do that growth and looking at that event ridership. Right now you have three round trips from D.C. to Norfolk. What if there was an event train that got people the tides or an event train that got people down here for a festival? Those are the kinds of economic development opportunities you could use. And when we come out of the World Cup recently and we see the amount of ridership that we had on transit and trains going to these events, we know there's a there there as well. And for Suffolk, being the highest growth city in this region, there's something to invest in. Also, when you're looking at connectivity, you would also look all the way up to the northeast. You'd look to D.C., and as the entire state and this region is looking at connectivity to the south and the west, Tennessee and North Carolina, it would connect to that as well. So those are the considerations that must be addressed as you look at a station. It's not as simple as saying we have a location and ridership and cost. Now how do we develop around that and create a strategy? So recommendations, that's a lot of knowledge to kind of parse into a what do we do now with all that. Well first, there needs to be further discussions with Norfolk Southern, Amtrak, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization. All those organizations are stakeholders in rail here. And they'll have a say or a thought on the operational characteristics of trains coming through here. Are you a stop on the current three round trips a day? Or are there additional trains that are coming through? Are you just getting one stop on those three? What does it look like to have a train station here operationally? Those are discussions that need to be had. Are you part of the future fourth, fifth, and tenth trains to come through here in the next 30 or 40 years? I'm being optimistic. Who knows? Those are the conversations that need to be had when you're looking at putting a train station in because it also makes a difference on when you size the train station eventually. You want to make sure you future-proof it for that growth and for that operation. You also want to look at the timing and phasing of future scenarios. It's really exciting to talk about this. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm almost vibrating. I love this stuff. But it takes a long time if you don't have that phasing in place. If you go through the state process and the federal process, you're looking at 10 to 20 years. That's a big wet cloth, wet blanket. But there are other processes in place depending on the commitment of the city to put in funding to go after grants and to take that burden on of advancing it and advocating for it. If you wait for the state and federal processes, you could be waiting a very long time. But if you look at different scenario plannings of taking that engineering in hand and taking that funding in hand, you can see something accelerated like what they did in Norfolk, where they went outside the federal process and had something within a couple of years by working directly with the state. Those are options, but they require the coordination with your state partners. You also want to do what you're continuing to do already. You're already investing in rail improvements and safety improvements, looking at advocacy campaigns for safety. Those are already under works and they need to continue. You're already looking at transit and sidewalk connectivity. You have a good transit system that needs to be expanded if it is to connect to a rail station. That's a future consideration that you can continue to work on. Those are all the recommendations as you're looking at the development and the strategy of your downtown, if it's to incorporate a train station, you would make it part of your broad strategy, comprehensive to align with some of these other development needs and priorities of the state, the economic development priorities, the housing priorities, the connectivity priorities and mobility priorities. So all that to conclude, that's a lot of me being very excited, what are we gonna do immediately right now? Two proposed next steps. The first is to immediately talk with your staff to get a recommendation to go straight to the state, DRPT, to ask for inclusion in their process, that Commonwealth Corridor development. They are looking at development of the corridor between Norfolk all the way up to Bristol for the Commonwealth Corridor. That's part of the federal process, and that's part of that 10 to 20 year process. But you want to make sure that you're included in it now, that you officially request to be part of that study. Because if you go the long route, you need to start now. And if you want to go the short route, you need to start looking at identifying those potential construction funding sources. What are the sources you have locally, regionally, in the state, and who are your champions that can align those funding sources to accelerate this project if this is something that you deem you want to accelerate? And those are your immediate next steps to make sure that you have a good process going forward. Get on the state plan to move forward, and then find your own local plan, and then work through that. And that concludes this presentation.

I'd be happy to answer any questions with maybe a little less vibration All right, thank you very much for your presentation I think in the big scheme of things this is good news. I mean we've got a Obviously there's a need for it and we can justify that I can certainly I think I can speak from the regional standpoint. We've had, I believe we do have support with the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization. Talking to the other localities, matter of fact, Mayor Alexander from Norfolk is the one that made a motion for me during the TPO to have them look into it, which is huge because they have a Amtrak station and there's no problem They don't have an issue with us doing that as well. We all know that the connectivity between Hampton Roads, what affects one city, affects everybody. We've had a lot of folks asking about it. The bad news was we're talking about 10 to 20 years. I guess the good news is I'll probably qualify for the senior citizen discount if I'm still around. Okay, we'll now move to motions. We have a motion to schedule a public hearing to be held on August 19th, 2026 to receive public comment on proposed amendments to the adopted fiscal year 2026-2027 fee schedule. And a motion would be in order. Council Member Johnson. So moved. And a motion for approval. Council Member Johnson. Council Member Williams. Second. Second from Council Member Williams. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

We now move to non-agenda speakers. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers this evening? And if so, please explain the guidelines.

We have no non-agenda speakers registered this evening.

Okay, no non-agenda speakers. With that being said, we'll move on to new business. Madam Clerk, do we have any additions to tonight's agenda?

We have one addition to this evening's agenda, a motion to nominate and appoint David Bosselman to the Planning Commission.

Council, what is your pleasure? Council Member Johnson? So moved. A motion for approval from Council Member Johnson. Council Member Bennett? Second. Second from Council Member Bennett. Is there any discussion of the motion? Council Member Wright? No discussion, just blow on the button. Okay, we got a motion on the floor. Can't remember, Council Member Johnson, seconded by, Council Member Wright, that's who it was. Okay, hearing no further discussion, Council Members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of seven to zero with Mayor Duman abstaining.

Okay, we'll now move to council. Do you have anything that you would like to bring out under new business? I won't forget about you. Okay, hold on a second. Scared you there, didn't I? All right, council member Butler-Marla.

Thank you so much, Mayor. Sorry, didn't mean to get ahead of myself. I actually have two pieces of new business to bring before council tonight. Do you want me to just do one and then do the second one?

Yeah, I think we need to vote on one. Do them separately?

Okay. To premise my comments, a 2022 Weldon Cooper Center study showed that the economic impact of agriculture in Virginia was over $82 billion in total industry output, the largest private sector impact to Virginia's economy. With our abundant rural resources, Suffolk can and should represent a bigger piece of this pie. All council members recently received a letter from the Ag Advisory Committee via the Economic Development Department asking for consideration for a grant program to promote and incentivize agritourism and other small-scale agribusinesses in the City of Suffolk. Much like the Downtown Small Business Grant Program recently introduced, this request would expand EDA's opportunity to support new small businesses in our more rural areas. With those facts in mind, I offer the following motion. I move that a motion be placed on the agenda for the city council meeting on August 19th, 2026, directing the city manager to present a staff report that evaluates the feasibility and structure of a farming and agritourism resiliency marketing farm grant program as proposed by the Agriculture Advisory Committee at the City Council meeting on September 2nd, 2026. So the motion on August 19th, the report back on the second, okay.

Okay, so we got a motion on the floor. Council Member Butler-Barlow, Council Member Johnson. I'll second that. Seconded from Council Member Johnson. We have a discussion of the motion. Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero. Council Member Butler-Barlow, your second item.

Thank you, Mayor. In spite of recent modifications to both our minor subdivision rules as well as changes to the dimensional standards for residential construction in the VC zoning districts, there are still infield construction projects that do not fit the character of the surrounding communities. and continue to have negative impacts to neighboring properties. There are still projects being approved that interfere with neighboring property owners, create complicated traffic patterns, may inhibit future infrastructure plans, and in general are ruining the look and feel of our older residential areas. Oakland and Chukotuck are ground zero for these inappropriate infill projects. I understand that staff can only follow the guidelines spelled out by city code, which means we as a council need to make code changes to give them more tools to approve projects that are genuinely a good fit and are appropriate for the established communities they impact. And with those facts in mind, I would like to make a motion to that. I move that a motion be placed on the agenda for the city council meeting on August 19th, 2026, to request the Planning Commission to review and recommend amendments to Section 31-506 of the Unified Development Ordinance that include requirements for all lots, including the residue, to have a minimum amount of public road frontage, prohibit flag lots, and provide any other improvements to the minor subdivision standards.

one question i think it's uh do you see august 26th august 19th 19th yeah 2026. i'm sorry i might have run it all together you did okay august 19th did i catch it okay all right we got a motion on four council member butler barlow council member wright second second by council member wright do we have any discussion in the motion there are none council members prepare to vote please cast your vote madam clerk kindly record the vote

Motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

We'll now move to announcements and comments. At this time, I'll ask if the Media and Community Relations Department has any announcements.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of councils, Mr. City Manager. I'll start tonight's announcements with some exciting news from city leadership. City Manager Kevin Hughes is pleased to announce the appointment of Gerald Wayne Rhodes as the City of Suffolk's new Director of Capital Programs and Buildings, effective July 7th. Rhodes has served the City of Suffolk since 2011 as Assistant Director of Capital Programs and Buildings. Prior to joining the city, he spent 20 years with Roundtree Construction Company, where he held several leadership positions in project management, contract administration, and financial management. In his new role, Rhodes will lead the department responsible for the city's capital, improvement projects, and municipal facilities, helping deliver projects that support Suffolk's continued growth. Also, effective July 7th, Public Works Director Greg Benton is pleased to announce the selection of Michael John Miller as Assistant Director of Public Works. Miller brings more than 30 years of experience in transportation, infrastructure, engineering, project management, and construction. His career includes 16 years with the Virginia Department of Transportation, as well as 15 years as a transportation, electrical, and communications engineering consultant. As assistant director, Miller will help lead the department's operations overseeing transportation, capital improvements, land acquisition, traffic, and signal operations. Please join us in congratulating Wayne Rhodes and Michael John Miller on their new leadership roles within the city. And on July 10th, the Economic Development Department celebrated the grand opening of the Tailored Smoke Cigar Lounge and Restaurant with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new location at 2864 Prudent Boulevard. Community members and local supporters gathered to welcome one of Suffolk's newest small businesses. Guests had the opportunity to tour the new lounge, meet the owners, and learn more about the dining options, premier cigars, and weekly community events. And National Night Out will be here soon. And a quick reminder that registration for community organizations will close on July 20th. National Night Out celebrations will take place across the city on Thursday, August 6th. Please note that this year, the event will be moved from the traditional Tuesday date due to the primary elections. Residents are encouraged to register their neighborhood events and join the city of Suffolk in building the safer and stronger communities. For more information or to register, visit SuffolkNNO.com. Suffolk Transit continues to celebrate America's 250th birthday by offering fair free Fridays throughout the month of July. Residents and visitors can ride any Suffolk Transit route at no cost, making it the perfect opportunity to experience the system's new Peanut Express route to Windsor or the Seaport Express route to Portsmouth. Whether you're commuting to work, running errands, or exploring the region, Suffolk Transit makes it Easy to get where you need to go. For more information, visit suffolktransit.org. And the Suffolk Workforce Development Center is inviting active adults to take flight with a free Ready for Takeoff Beginner's Guide to Drones class on Wednesday, July 29th at 11 a.m. This hands-on session will introduce participants to the basics of drones, including how they work every day, and recreational uses, FAA regulations, and beginner flight techniques. The class will be held at the Suffolk Workforce Development Center located at 157 North Main Street. Space is limited, so please register in advance. To register, call 757-514-7730. And Suffolk Parks and Rec is excited to kick off the second half of the TGIF concert series at the second location at Bennett's Creek Park starting Friday, July 24th. The free concert will feature the DeLoreans who will take the stage from 6 p.m. to 9.30 with a high energy performance of favorite hits from the past. Residents are encouraged to bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy an evening of live music with friends and family. The concert is free and open to the public. So for more information, visit suffolkparksandrec.com. And motorists are reminded of two ongoing HRSD road projects currently impacting travel in Suffolk. The first is along Armstead Road between the traffic circle entrance and Ironside Drive. Crews are performing overnight asphalt restoration work along Armstead Road and College Drive with the road closed nightly from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for up to two weeks. A detour is in place using Point Place and Ironside Drive. The second project is along a portion of Willoway Road where HRSD continues to work on the Suffolk Pump Station replacement project. The temporary road closure will remain in effect through July 31st to allow crews to complete critical utility improvements that will help strengthen the city's wastewater system. Motorists are encouraged to plan ahead, follow posted detour signs, expect possible delays, and use caution when traveling through these work zones. And finally, the Turlington Road Spate's Spillway Bridge Project replacement is now underway. To help explain what this project includes and what motorists can expect during construction, let's take a quick look at this video for an overview.

Spate's Spillway Bridge Replacement. Construction on Turlington Road is starting in July 2026. The project replaces the superstructure of the bridge over the spillway from Lake Spate into Lake Kilby. The deck will be replaced, substructure repairs completed, and a new guardrail installed, maintaining the existing alignment and width. Construction will take about 275 days and requires a full bridge closure with a detour. The road will be closed between Brett Drive and Riparian Drive with a detour in place along the Suffolk Bypass US 13. The total estimated cost is $1.3 million and is expected to be complete in spring 2027.

For more information about all Public Works capital improvement projects, please visit the city website at suffolkva.us.

And a quick reminder for a complete listing of all the city's CIP projects, they can be found at suffolkva.us slash CIP. And lastly on your screen are the ways that residents can stay connected to the city of Suffolk. Thank you and have a good evening.

Thank you, Ms. Moore. We'll now move on to comments by council. We're going to start with Council Member Wright.

Thank you, Mayor. So first, I wanted to congratulate. I would like to congratulate Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Miller on your appointments. Congratulations. I also want to say that Bridge Road is nearing its final stretch. Thank you for your patience and your grace. We still have a couple of obstacles to overcome, but relief is in sight. And the last thing I wanted to do is just to thank the citizens of Sleepy Hole Borough and all the citizens of Suffolk who continue to remain engaged. I know sometimes it feels like your comments and contributions fall on deaf ears, believe me uh we are listening and we're going to continue to listen and your input does factor in it matters so continue to show up and allow your voice to be heard and with that i'll say good night council member rector thank you mr mayor i'm going to be brief because it's actually been a fairly quiet last couple of weeks i also want to congratulate

The new appointees, Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Miller, I'm sure y'all will perform excellently in your new job and I look forward to seeing what y'all have to offer to the city. To the Workforce Development Council, you're a little late with your drone class. Unfortunately, mine's already in a pine tree somewhere, but if I ever get another drone, I'll be sure to come and take the class from them. I also want to thank Kevin. Thank you very much for helping to schedule a meeting with one of my constituents who's got some concerns about a construction project going on right near his house. I think that meeting hopefully would go a long way to allay his fears about what's coming and what's going to happen when everything is all finished. And then Mr. Mayor, I'm going to take a page out of your book. The city gets beat up a lot, sometimes rightfully so, sometimes not so rightfully so. So when somebody who is passing through the city notices something and then sends an email out, I think it's important that it be brought to light. And before our last council meeting, there was that fire up near Oakland. elementary school up in the Chukotuck borough. And we all got an email, I'm sure we did, and it was from Angela Washington from Jacksonville, North Carolina. And she said, while visiting my sister in Suffolk, she and I planned an outing to Williamsburg. On our journey, we could see the smoke clouds from a distance. The image of the house engulfed in flames took us both by surprise. Unfortunately, she and I didn't arrive back in town for me to sign up to speak at tonight's city council meeting. However, it was the call of duty by the city of Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue that I want to acknowledge. But the information below will suffice. Today I want to talk about the extraordinary people in your community, the firefighters of the City of Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue. They are not just responders, they are heroes. Just recently they faced a house fire within walking distance of Oakland Elementary School. When a family's world was engulfed in flames, these brave individuals rushed in, focused and resolute. In the midst of the chaos, their actions spoke volumes. They put themselves in harm's way. ensuring not only the safety of their family, but also the children at the school nearby. They exemplified courage. They preserved life. They kept your community safe. Many people overlook what first responders do. They often think it's just a job, but it's more than that. It's a calling. Each time they respond to an emergency, they choose to step up. They choose to put others before themselves. In doing so, they preserve the sanity and quality of life for all that call Suffolk home. For middle and high school students watching these heroes, there's a lesson here, a chance to see what it means to serve, a chance to see that saving lives is not merely a duty, it's an opportunity to make a difference. Each firefighter's action is a beacon lighting the path for those who wish to follow. So I urge all of you, young and old alike, look at these firefighters, look at what they do, let their actions inspire you, because in each of us lies the potential to greatness, and in every act of service we can preserve life. We can be heroes just like them. So I just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention and thank the fire department and police for what they do to keep us safe on a daily basis.

Council Member Williams. Thank you, Mayor. First, I would like to thank Ms. Brandy Johnson with Neighborhood Development Services for always addressing the citizens' concerns in a timely manner. To Mr. Greg Benton, Public Works Director, and his team for providing prompt services for our citizens. Congratulations, Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Miller, Well, Wayne, I've known you for years and years and years, and, you know, you came up under the best. Mr. Jones, I know you're going to carry on that tradition of greatness, so I'd like to congratulate you. My word for the month of July is gratitude, the quality of being thankful, the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. And with that, I'll say good night. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

I'm getting there. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank everybody. We covered a lot of territory tonight. We covered a lot of different subjects and I appreciate the thoughtful conversation. I appreciate the folks that come out and spoke and the fact that sometimes we have to make difficult decisions, but appreciate everyone's participation and thoughtful consideration. I want to use the rest of my time for a small tribute, if that's okay with everybody. Virginia agriculture last week lost one of our giants. Dee Dee Darden was a daughter of Suffolk, excuse me, but found love and livelihood in Isle of Wight County and spent most of her adult life in Isle of Wight. A one of a kind personality, Dee Dee made lifelong friends across the country through her leadership and advocacy for agriculture, both in Virginia and nationally. She was a proud ambassador for their family's business, Darden Country Store, whose reputation is known far and wide, literally around the world. DeeDee had a lasting impact on all of White County as a farmer, a neighbor, a county supervisor. She was a friend and she was a mentor, and I'm sorry, I'm being emotional, but it's a hard loss. I know that her children and grandchildren will make sure that her legacy and Tommy's legacy lives on. And if you have never had a Darden store ham sandwich, what are you waiting for? Get out there and have one. Rest in peace, Deedee, we will miss you. Good night.

Council Member Bennett. Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to start out by saying congratulations to my dear friends. Mr. Rhodes, you know, we're just about back as far as Garrett. We've been together for a long time, and congratulations. I'm sure that you will continue the legacy that you all have grown together with doing in this city. So congratulations to you and Mr. Miller. I would also like to thank this Deputy City Manager Gary Jones and Parks and Rec, Mr. Mark Follow. They attended a homeowner's meeting with me up at Bob White last week, and they did a great presentation. The people were very happy to have them there. They were just missing the police department. They had some questions about that. Next time we'll try to get with you, Chief, to have some officers up there. They had some concerns. about police work and Gary and Mark did a great job. Present the facts about what was taking place in the area and I cannot thank them enough for being there with me and also had school board Miss Jenkins. She was there as well. So thank you again for the information and sharing that thoughts with me and we do have a couple of issues up there that we will be attending just to manage you and I, maybe Thursday, some concerns that they had. And one of the things they brought up, I'm going to say the 4th of July fireworks were great downtown, but they said they had downtown fireworks in their neighborhood. And we was telling them, I think it's illegal, but they were saying they had rockets going off up there and all. So I don't know how we can do or what we can do with trying to get this sort of, I know you can't stop it, And probably by the time you get there, they're gone. So I don't know what we can do, but they had a real big concern that they were afraid some houses might catch on fire using the rockets and all that. So there wasn't anything we could do about it but tell them to call you. So that's what the information we gave them to call the police if they have that kind of thing going on. And I think I was right telling them that. So again, we want to thank them for that. And also, I Received some calls from Cypress Farm. That neighborhood subdivision was built in 2021, and the streets are in bad shape. They need asking me to request that the streets be looked at for repaving in Cypress Farm. That's down off White Marsh Road. Also, I would like to thank Mr. Patel. He did tell me tonight that the contract has been signed for Cedar Lake. So I'm sure some of the residents are listening. So I think he said maybe shortly, week, that hopefully some of the contracts have been signed. So we hope that we will get some movement. So again, thank you a lot for pushing that job along. And I can't thank you enough for that. And with that, I would say, Oh, the fireworks were good downtown. We had a great fireworks, great turnout. The weather was nice, and I think people enjoyed. The only comment that I did hear, Mr. Manager, they said it was only 11 minutes. That's the only negative comment that I got. It was only 11 minutes. It wasn't long enough, but it was a great turnout, and everything was great for the fireworks. Again, with that, I'll say goodnight. Okay.

No, we got Tim. Timothy Johnson. I guess that means to be brief, right?

Wayne Rhodes, I told you we were glad to have you here. Everybody said congratulations, so I'll include that. And Mr. Miller as well. We are happy to have you guys on board. A quick reminder on the Turlington Road, I've already had so many phone calls on it. People, don't go down there. You can go around it, get from one end to the other, easy enough. But for the people in my borough, please beware. Turlington Road's closed for about a year, maybe not quite a year. So just be aware. I'm going to be brief. A couple of things I need to say. The library had a peanut chase this past Saturday. If you weren't aware of it, it was unbelievable. 40 people running around the city trying to find peanuts. And they included my business on the tour, so it was so cool to run into all these people. Very successful peanut chase from the library. Train station, I've already said it once, remarkable. We have done a tremendous job. I had a little three-year-old come to see me this weekend, my grandbaby, and she went to the peanut station, well, she went to the Lake Mead Park first. And I'm here to tell you, She says Lake Mead Park is better than any park in Richmond. They had the most tremendous time. I need to get over there more often, but our parks and rec people do a tremendous job, and that park is really something for our city. I just want to say thank you to the people of this city. To my friends and to everybody, I had a brother pass in the last two or three weeks. I don't know how long it's been now. But people have been so pouring out of their sympathy and their caring, and I can't thank the city enough and thank the people. To thank the people down here at City Hall, it was true what a small city is like, what a small town is like, and the way we look after one another and respect one another. But I'm so appreciative, and I'm appreciative to be a part of all of this And I'll back up for one second to Dede Darden as well. Dede Darden and I grew up together. We went to school together. We were the best friends all the way through life. And it's been a tough loss there too. She was a tremendous agriculturalist. If you didn't know her, she was really an amazing soul. And she was born here in Suffolk too. She might have been an ally, but she was from Suffolk. And she's truly gonna be missed by this city. And with that, I'll also say thank you to the council. Thank the council for supporting, for all of us supporting one another. And I'm very proud of this council. I think we've done good things lately. I really appreciate it. And with that, I'll say good night.

Vice Mayor Ward. First of all, Tim, did you say your brother passed? Well, you have my condolence because you're... I want to thank the mayor for the Fourth of July fireworks. We had a good view of it. He had invited a few friends and people so we could look at it in good pieces and so forth. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you for that. Mr. Rose and Mr. Williams, congratulations. forgive me, I always should see you. You would speak to me anywhere you see me, and I was like saying, I know, but where is your department at? I didn't know where you was at. You know what I mean, because you, I mean, you was, I didn't know, and I was afraid to ask, you know. So tonight when you got up there, I said, well, that's where he, that's his department. But then you said to me, this was your first time speaking, so I wasn't wrong. You'll do a great job. Thank you, man. You took that burden off me because I didn't know where you worked at. I want to say this here. I'm always seen to be the person that said things that maybe some others want to say or don't say the right way, but that's fine with me. I ride through Suffolk almost every day. I come be in northern Suffolk, downtown Suffolk, cross Suffolk, middle Suffolk, every day almost. People come up here, a lot of times we can't say what we really wanna say. Okay, we gotta take a lot. And by doing that, have y'all really looked at our roads? Now Mr. Johnson, no, I tell him all the time, 58 look great. We had to go through a whole lot of situations, but look at the after effect. 50, it looked great. The lanes looked fine. The white line is bright. It looked great. Now we got 17 where I'm at. We had to go through traffic problems, but look at 17. It looked fine. We got so many things going on. Then today, I went down 460. Change is going to happen. And 460 is not finished, but it looks good. So some of the things that we had to go through in Suffolk and traffic and all this, and you're worried about traffic, I don't see none of y'all coming up here tomorrow, well done. We understand now. You know, you don't do that. But you get the privilege of downing us, fine. That's fine, but I'm saying it looked good. Our streets look better than it did 20 years ago, or 15 years ago, or 10. It looked fine. One thing I wanted to say, I witnessed today, and a lot of us up here don't want to say it, but I witnessed today, and I'm not going to talk about it because it can't nobody tell the story, about this project, but the mayor. So I'm not gonna mess it up. And what I'm saying is the warehouse. The 100 people or 200 people that came up, y'all need a tour to look at that warehouse. I'm done with that. I want the mayor to continue, because you don't know what we went through with that warehouse. If you all had intentions of weakening us, we bent, but we didn't fall. It wasn't just us. It was the whole city, state, and nation wanted us to vote for that warehouse. Look it up. With that, I'll say God bless.

Okay. I don't know if it just got set up there or not. I know it did. I did, on purpose, because I know. Mr. Rose, Mr. Miller-Wayne, I used to joke with Gary all the time, like, where have you been? Because he was like my under-the-radar guy. So I had to inform him now that he was the deputy city manager, it ain't that easy to be under the radar. So you had a good tutor coming up anyhow. So congratulations on your promotion and welcome Mr. Miller on board. The July 4th fireworks were excellent. Everything went off without a hitch. We had the police department there. Everything was just the way a community event is supposed to be, even though it was 90-plus that day. I mean, it was smoking, but it was a great event, good fireworks, no issues, just the way we like to see it. Nobody mentioned July 8th. We had what was going to be Patriots in the Park. Councilman Rector was there. And the reason it was called Patriots in the Park is because it was supposed to take place at the Festival Park. It was the 250th celebration, of course, the Declaration of Independence, the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, which the city manager participated in also. And because there was a chance of rain, we moved it to the library And afterwards, I went up to the manager, I said, the Lord works in mysterious ways, because that location was absolutely perfect. I mean, it was like it was made for it. The entrance in the back, the way it's designed with the pergola and a little stage area on the side, and you had plenty of concrete and people could go inside if they got hot. We probably had 150 people there. had a band and people dressed up in revolutionary type garb. It was just an outstanding event. It was one of the best city events that I've been to, and we need to keep that venue in mind moving forward. Not that there's anything wrong with the festival park, but depending on What the activity is, the library is something we hadn't thought about before, but it just worked out perfect. I attended the ribbon cutting for the Tailored Smoked Cigar Lounge and Restaurant. I wish them well. It's in an area that needs a little bit of help and a little bit of activity, so hopefully that will be, it's a rather unique use. I really don't know what the market's gonna be, but I wish them well. The folks that are going to be running it have been working on this project. I think I talked to them three years ago. They had a few issues to deal with and they got through that. Also, we had mentioned today, I mean, during the day in our consent agenda, we had four items directly related to the school system involving money and it was a total, appropriation is $6,418,884. I'm taking credit for the 6.4 million because 4.3 of it was the additional funding from the state. But when we passed the budget and we did kind of shortfall or cut the budget $2 million pending the appropriations from the state and we promised to make them whole in that $2 million and to do that we I had to chip in another $688,000, which basically fully funded their original request for everything. And moving forward, I think everything that we say, we say with good intent and we're gonna do what we're gonna do. So when I came in short, we did that. We had another million five worth of encumbered purchase orders that money had to be carried over to the next year and reappropriated. So I think we've done our part for the school system I'm not going to really talk about Port 460, and that's what the Vice Mayor was alluding to, but they had a little event today, a wall raising or what have you. Council Member Johnson was there and the Vice Mayor and Council Member Williams. And even though I live just a few miles from there and I go up and down 460 at least a couple of times a week, I had not gone into the project itself. And Sunday when I was out, you know, I took the pups and went to Lowe's and I was coming back and I just went home that way. And you see, you know what? I'm going to turn into Port 460 and see what this thing looks like. And driving past it on 460 does it absolutely no justice. It is absolutely amazing. I'm not just saying that. I mean, go and look at it yourself. The landscaping contract alone, to my understanding, was $1.6 million just for the landscaping. When you go in, you go in that main entrance, you get all those new roads. There's a roundabout. The roundabout is landscaped as nice as anything you put in front of your house. It's got a big anchor in the middle of it. The roadways on both sides, you know, they've got stamp concrete pavers. They've got pavers that they've used around the roundabout and for the walkways, they've got sidewalks, they've got walking trails, and there are trees and shrubs and just planted everywhere. Three huge retention ponds. And I was going back and looking through my notes, going back to, August 17th, 2022. So next month will be four years since we had to consider that project, which much consternation might say it. But I spent months looking at every single issue factor. I looked at 130 emails that were sent to me. I categorized them. I looked at how we could address them, whether they were going to be addressed. And at the end of the day, I felt like we were doing the right thing and the issues that the citizens had were going to be addressed. But one thing I couldn't count on was whether the developer was going to do what they said they were going to do. That's always the unknown. You look at the paper, it says we're going to do this, we intend on doing that, this is how it's going to look, and then it doesn't come out like that. In this particular case, at least from my standpoint, they have absolutely exceeding expectations. I mean, if there's such a thing as a good-looking building, then that's much, but the building themselves are awesome, but everything around it is going to be up to stuff the way they've done the berms. They get the vegetation going there. I think by the time everything's done, I think our citizens will be happy with it, and I think it's something that we're also concerned about is that 460 being one of the main entrances into our city, what is that going to look like when people come down 460 before they actually enter our city? And Councilman Johnson, I think you can look at it and get an idea. And it's like, wow, this really looks good. You know, we can talk about all the other pros and the cons and what have you. From a fiscal standpoint, I got a couple of numbers from, I called the assessor the other day. He was out of town. He's in Florida, but he called me, and I got the numbers. I said, just give me an idea, where are we right now on this project? So there's a total of, there's 13 parcels there that were originally the mother parcel because 137 acres of it was still zone B2 and then the rest of it was ag, but the B2, I guess the taxable value was $5 million, $5,110,000. 5,110,800 to be exact. Now, today's assessment, with one and a half buildings being complete, not the big ones, one and a half buildings being complete, and with the improvements they made, that assessment has gone from five million to $156 million. and they really haven't scratched the surface. That $156 million equates to $1,674,255 in just real estate tax. That's it, with very little impact on our services. That was compared to $54,000. So I think in the long run, with the money that's being invested, we're going to have something that's going to be huge economic engine for this city for decades to come. That money is going to continue to be generated. There's still going to be a certain number of jobs. We're going to have public transportation to it. You know, if there's a push on affordable housing, then once again, this is going to provide jobs for a lot of folks. Some people don't think it's that much, but that That job market is getting kind of competitive. So the hourly rates have gone up substantially. The benefits are better because they have to compete for the labor. So I am very, very pleased with where we are. And I know some folks weren't happy with it. And I understand why, because you don't really know what you're coming and you're used to looking at farmland. But when you go through there, I invite you to go through there and drive. Another thing that's a little deceiving is when you go down 460, there's a lot of corn being grown right on the front, right on 460. So you don't think anything of it, but on the backside of that corn is a road that you don't see that's all paved and sidewalked and LED lights. I'm not going to go into it anymore, but On a Sunday, whatever, just take a peek at it, and I think you'd be impressed with it. And hopefully, 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, we can still say it was the right decision, but could be wrong. But with that being said, oh, my quote of the night. I found one of the greatest quotes ever. And Ebony's rolling her eyes over there. She's going, oh my God, what's he going to say now? No telling what's going to come out of that boy's mouth. Okay, so this is from Thomas Sowell, who's been around a long time. And it's an older quote, but it really, in my opinion, applies to what we deal with on social media now. Because people get a hold of something and it's just like, let's just pile on and kill it. Whether you know anything or not, If somebody said the moon's made out of Swiss cheese and we're using tax money to fly up there every other day and get more cheese for Williams so we can get excellent legal advice, then we just, they just pile on it or wasted money. So this is the quote. Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true, but many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence. And that's exactly what's happened. Just right on the money, I'm gonna save this one, put it in my favorite quote file. And I got a thumbs up down there, so I know I'm done. Okay, with that being said, good meeting tonight. I would entertain a motion for adjournment. Council Member Wright?

Motion to adjourn.

A motion to adjourn. Council Member White? Council Member Butler-Barlow. Second. Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. If nobody has any problem with that, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of eight to zero.

This meeting stands adjourned.