City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome. City Council is now in session. Please be advised that Council Member Wright is unable to attend this evening and has been excused. At this time, please stand for the invocation by Council Member Butler-Barlow, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

Let us pray. Tonight I offer a prayer from an ancient letter to the citizens of Thessalonica. Brothers and sisters, we ask you to respect those who are working with you, leading you, and instructing you. Think of them highly with love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are disorderly. Comfort the discouraged. Help the weak. Be patient with everyone. Make sure no one repays a wrong with a wrong, but always pursue the good for each other and everyone else. Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

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 August the 19th, 2026 pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3712 as amended is presented at this time. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Suffolk hereby certifies THAT TO THE BEST OF EACH MEMBER'S KNOWLEDGE, ONLY PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS LAWFULLY EXEMPTED FROM THE 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 OF THE CITY OF SUFFOLK IN THE CLOSED MEETING.

COUNCIL, A MOTION HAS BEEN PRESENTED. WHAT'S YOUR PLEASURE? COUNCIL MEMBER WILLIAMS. SO MOVED. AND A MOTION FOR APPROVAL FROM COUNCIL MEMBER WILLIAMS. COUNCIL MEMBER RECTOR. SECOND. SECOND FROM COUNCIL MEMBER RECTOR. 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 seven to zero.

We'll now move to approval of the minutes from the May 20th, 2026 and June 3rd, 2026 work sessions and regular meetings. And a motion would be in order. Council? Council Member Williams. Move for approval. Motion for approval. Council Member Williams. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Second.

Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. 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 seven to zero.

We have no special presentations this evening. At this time, we will 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. However, City Manager Hughes has information regarding agenda item number 21. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, item 21 is listed as a public hearing. Unfortunately, we did not get this item properly advertised, so I would request that we amend the agenda and move this item and have it presented as a staff report in your agenda.

With that being said, a motion to amend the agenda to move agenda item number 21 to staff reports and adopt the remainder of the agenda as presented would be in order. Council? Council Member Rector. So moved. And a motion for approval from Council Member Rector. Council Member Johnson. Second. Second from Council Member Johnson. 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 seven to zero.

I will now move to agenda speakers. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers this evening? And if so, explain the guidelines.

Yes, Mayor Duman, we do have one agenda speaker this evening. Each speaker under this portion of the agenda will be allotted five minutes to present their item, their comments to City Council. Speakers must address the subjects indicated on the registration form. Failure to do so will result in the forfeiture of the speaker's remaining time. Speakers appearing before City Council will not be allowed to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, engage in personal attacks, or use profanity. Speakers who violate these rules will be declared out of order by the presiding officer and will immediately yield the floor and be seated. Jean Arthur, 8437, representing self, regarding an ordinance to amend section 86-291 of the code of the city of Suffolk restricting through truck traffic on Manning Road from Copeland Road to Mineral Springs Road and on Arthur Drive from Mineral Springs Road to Whaleyville Boulevard. Is Mr. Arthur present? That concludes the agenda speakers, Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time, will you please present the consent agenda items for consideration?

Item number seven, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for the Suffolk Victim Witness Assistance Program. Item number eight, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Aviation for the Suffolk Executive Airport. Item number nine, an ordinance to accept and appropriate a Creative Communities Partnership Grant Award from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Item number 10, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services Burn Justice Assistant Equipment Grant in support of the Suffolk Sheriff's Department. Item number 11, an ordinance to accept and appropriate funds from the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services Rescue Squad Assistance Fund for the Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue. Item number 12, an ordinance to accept and appropriate fiscal year 2026-2027 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT AND HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM FUNDING FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT. ITEM 13, A RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT A DONATION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY FOR THE SUFFOLK DEPARTMENT OF FIRE AND RESCUE. ITEM 14, AN ORDINANCE TO ACCEPT AND APPROPRIATE ADDITIONAL FUNDS FROM THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF RAIL AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. FOR THE CITY OF SUFFOLK'S PUBLIC TRANSIT SERVICE IN ITEM NUMBER 15, AN ORDINANCE TO ACCEPT AND APPROPRIATE ADDITIONAL FUNDS FROM THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF RAIL AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND TO AUTHORIZE THE TRANSFER OF FUNDS FROM THE TRANSIT FUND ASSIGNED FUND BALANCE TO THE CAPITAL PROJECTS FUND FOR THE CITY OF SUFFOLK'S TRANSIT OPERATIONS FACILITIES PROJECT.

THANK YOU, MADAM CLERK. MR. MANAGER, PLEASE PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF THE ITEMS. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, consent item number seven, the city has received $416,545 in funding from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services in support of the Suffolk Victim Witness Assistance Program, providing services to crime victims and witnesses. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the fiscal year 26-27 consolidated grant funds budget by $416,545 and requires $205,599 in local fund support, which is provided in the fiscal year 26-27 consolidated grant funds budget. Consent item number eight the city has received three thousand five hundred dollars in funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Aviation in support of the Suffolk executive airport to assist with federal aviation administration required inspections of the automated weather observation system Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues and expenditures of the aviation fund balance by three thousand five hundred dollars and requires one hundred $84.22 in local funding support, which is provided in the 26-27 Aviations Facilities Fund budget. Consent item number nine, the city has received $4,500 in a Creative Communities Partnership Grant from the Virginia Commission of the Arts in support of local arts and cultural activities throughout the Suffolk Fine Arts Commission. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues expenditures, the consolidated grant funds budget by $4,500 and requires $4,500 in local matching funds, which is provided in the adopted 2627 general fund budget. Consent item number 10, the city has received $9,739 in funding from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, Burn Justice assistance equipment grant in support of the Suffolk Sheriff's Department. Funding will be used for the purchase of tasers. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues and expenditures of the consolidated grant funds budget by $9,739 and requires a local match of $3,247, which is provided in the 26-27 consolidated grant funds budget. Consent item number 11, the city has received $140,849.80 from the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services Rescue Squad Assistance Fund in support of the Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue to purchase five Stryker LifePak cardio monitor defibrillators for emergency medical services. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues expenditures of the consolidated grant funds budget by $100,000. $40,849.80 and requires a local match of $140,849.80 which is provided in the 26-27 consolidated grant funds budget. Consent item number 12. The city has received an award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the amount of $900,000. $5,658.63 in the community, in addition to, excuse me, which includes $515,935 in community development grant fund, CDBG fundings. This also includes $389,750 $23.63 in home investment partnership program funds. All these funds will be used in accordance with the City Council approved 2627 action plan for program administration and activities in support of low to moderate income persons and families in Suffolk and Western Tidewater. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the planned revenues expenditures and consolidated grant funds budget by $900. $5,658.63 and does not require local fund support. Consent item number 13, the city has received a donation from Orange Theory Fitness Suffolk, including 13 free motion treadmills, each valued at $900 totaling $11,700. Adoption of the attached resolution is necessary to accept and record the donated property for the Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue. There is no match requirement. Consent item number 14. The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation has awarded the city $456,281.84 IN OPERATING FUNDING FOR THE CITY'S PUBLIC TRANSIT FISCAL YEAR 2627 BUDGET. THE AMOUNT AWARDED IS $83,104.84 MORE THAN THE ADOPTED 2627 TRANSIT FUND BALANCE. ADOPTION OF THE ATTACHED ORDINANCE WILL INCREASE THE REVENUE EXPENDITURES OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2627 TRANSIT FUND BUDGET BY $83,104.84. And consent item number 15, the city has received additional funding in the amount of $686,435 from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to fund the construction of the transit operations facility at the Carolina Road Operations Center. Adoption of the attached ordinance is necessary to accept and appropriate the additional $686,435 in state funding for fiscal year 26-27 capital project funds budget and transfer $686,435 in local match from the transit fund assigned fund balance to the capital projects fund budget. That concludes your consent items.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. If there are no questions about the items, a motion would be in order to approve the consent agenda as presented. Council Member Williams? Move to approve. Get a motion for approval from Council Member Williams. Council Member Butler-Barlow?

Second.

Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. 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 seven to zero.

We'll now move to public hearings. Our first public hearing is an ordinance to amend and reordain the adopted fiscal year 2026-2027 fee schedule for the City of Suffolk, Virginia to amend the Western Tidewater Water Authority fees for the wholesale water rate and the fixed capacity charge, public works sign program fee, site plan and engineering plan review fees, and major subdivision fee. as well as parks and recreation membership fees for city employees. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Paul Rattel, the Director of Public Utilities, will provide a presentation on all three department programs.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Mr. Manager, City Council. As the manager indicated, this is an ordinance to amend and reordain the current, so that's the current fee schedule that's in place for the 2026 and 2027 fee schedule. So since there are three departments that are affected with this, as the manager indicated, I'll give the overall presentation. We have the other two directors for the other departments. That would be Public Works and Parks and Recreation here, as well, at the conclusion of this, if you have any specific questions on those items. So the first item for public utility on there are fee schedule. This ordinance amends the fee schedule for the Western Tidewater Water Authority water utility fees. So the amended fees on this piece would be the wholesale water rate and the fixed capacity charge. These are not charges for the city of Suffolk. These are water authority rates for water that is sold to Isle of Wight County. So the reason for the revision is at the time that the city budget was adopted in May with the accompanying fee schedule, the rate development process was still in play with the water authority with the final fees being adopted at the June 2026 water authority board meeting. Again, this ordinance does not affect the fiscal year 26-27 City of Suffolk water rates. So specifically, the current fiscal year rates on the current schedule for wholesale water rates for 100 cubic feet are $6.20 with the fixed capacity charge. The fixed capacity charge is the way that we as the City of Suffolk recoup investments in the water system. This is how Isle of Wight pays us back. At the time, when the budget was adopted in May, that was $173,235 a month. The amended fees that will appear on the fee schedule for the wholesale water rate will be $6.05, and then for the fixed capacity charge, that will go up to $183,445 per month. Moving on to the address sign program. This program will improve the address visibility and support emergency response to residents who desire to purchase an address sign. The program is supported by $10,000 from the Public Safety Committee Fund. This will be offset some of the fabrication costs of the sign. Residents will pay $15. That's the fee that will appear on the fee schedule. and staff is in the process of finalizing the sign program as far as procedures to request assign availability things of that nature next item related to public works to actually two items on the fee schedule one has to do with the dqd department of our mental quality construction general permits By Virginia State Code, those fees changed July 1st of 2026, hence the need to revise the fee schedule. These fees, if they change annually, will be published by DEQ on their website. SO WHAT ALSO OCCURRED HERE IS THESE CONSTRUCTION GENERAL PERMIT FEES WERE REMOVED FROM THE VARIOUS PLAN REVIEW FEES. YOU CAN SEE UP THERE THE SITE PLAN REVIEW FEE AS WELL AS THE ENGINEERING PLAN REVIEW FEE AND MOVE DOWN TO A SEPARATE CATEGORY. THE SECOND THING ON HERE IS A MINOR TEXT REVISION, CLERICAL REVISION FOR MAJOR SUBDIVISION REVIEW FEES WHERE MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT, THAT WORDING WAS STRUCK OUT AND NOW BECOMES MAJOR SUBDIVISION REVIEW FEE. THERE IS NO CHANGE TO THAT specific fee Last as far as Parks and Recreation The current membership rates for adult recreation memberships are $20 a year adult fitness center membership $10 a month this revision the amendment to the fee schedule would make those fees free of charge to city employees in support of the city's staff wellness initiative it provides access to all the amenities and at three different recreation centers and also other many group fitness classes. That concludes this presentation, and again, I and the other two directors will be available should you have any questions at the conclusion of the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rattel. 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, and will receive three minutes to offer their comments.

This is a public hearing with the first speaker. Please come forward and provide their name and address. Is there 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. What is your pleasure, Council Member Rector?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Before I offer a motion for approval, Mr. Rattel, can I just ask you one quick question? And this is not 100% related to this ordinance, but is peripherally related. There's been a lot of stuff in the news recently about DEQ and the aquifer and drawing water out of it. Is that going to have an impact on us sometime down the road, do you think?

It could. It could in the area of the, again, we're participating in the Western Tidewater Water Authority, as you know. So us, the City of Suffolk and Isla White are the two-member jurisdictions. So that report that you're referring to, which is called SJ25, is a report on the aquifer groundwater conditions in, you know, east of 95. We withdraw water from the Potomac Aquifer. That's where our groundwater production wells come from. We just, within the last three weeks, submitted to DEQ our groundwater withdrawal permit application. Our permit expires next year. I suspect that it's possible that DEQ could be looking to use that report to say there may be further cuts coming for groundwater withdrawal. Obviously, we wouldn't agree with that, but there may be an impact with that report. I don't know if that answers your question. Yeah, no, no, I appreciate that.

Yes, sir. And with that, I move for approval.

Okay, we have a motion for approval from Council Member Rector, Council Member Bennett.

Yeah, while you're there, Paul. I do. Yes, sir. On the rates being changed, that is because of the transferring water from Suffolk to Isle of Wight.

Yes.

And that's not going to have any effect on the Suffolk customer rates.

That is correct.

Okay. So I think that need to be clear to the public so they will know the rate changes will not affect Suffolk. That is correct. Thank you, sir. Yes. And I'll second the motion.

We got a second by Council Member Bennett. Council Member Williams. Yes, Mayor. Mark.

My question is related to the membership rate for the Recreation Center. It says the Adult Recreation Center membership is $20 per year. Then it says the Adult Fitness Center membership is $10 per month. Can you do one without the other? Or you have to have the membership and Explain that to me.

So, yeah, so you have to have the recreation center. You can just get a recreation center membership, and that gives you access to the gym, the game room, and the computer labs and other amenities. But if you want to use the fitness center, you have to get the fitness center membership on top of the rec center membership. So it's $20 and then $10 a month to use the fitness center. And that's comparable to what we see other parks and recreation agencies in the area and fitness centers too. We charge a similar type fee structure.

Okay. Is there a way to be able to explain that to the citizens?

Because if you look at it,

just looking at it, it says, okay, the membership is $20 a year. And then it says the fitness center membership is $10 a month. But it's not really telling you that, okay, you have to have membership and then the additional $10,000. I mean, just another way to really clarify that for the citizens.

So in our program, that is explained in our program guide and on our website that the rec center membership is required in order to get a fitness center membership. And staff, they do a really good job of explaining it when people come in. Thank you, Mom.

Yep.

Vice Mayor of the Board. Yeah, I'm glad Councilman Williams brought that up because most recently I asked that question as far as I know one time is a membership, but you said something about a gym. What happens up there in Creekside? I know a gym. They got to say they pay the same $20? I mean, what happens?

Yeah, so we do have open gym hours at the Creekside Recreation Center, which is at the school next door. But, yeah, you would pay the same fee. But the thing is you don't – you can also use – if you get a membership at Bennett's Creek Recreation Center, you can also use the Recreation Center at East Suffolk or at Miltier. We have a lot of people that will use – We'll go back and forth between recreation centers, especially maybe somebody works downtown and they live in Whaleyville. They'll use both recreation centers.

So the $20, what did it add? Because you said a lot of people use the weight room and all that. That's an extra $10 for fitness.

That's correct.

And how do people know what you just said about you can go to the gym? This is the first time I heard of this, as far as you can go to the gym. It's open.

What day is it open? The school? I can send that information. I don't have it with me right now.

Because, I mean, you know... We have...

It's not typically open during the summer because we have our summer camps going on, but we do have some hours available in the winter in the school year. And I can send you that information. Or I can give you a call and give you that information.

I appreciate that. Thank you. No problem.

Okay. Do we have any other questions or comments? If no, we have a motion on the floor for approval made by Council Member Rector, which was seconded by Council Member Bennett. Hearing no additional comments, 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.

Your next public hearing is an ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a commercial dog kennel use on property located at 2170 Joshua Lane, zoning map 24, parcel 26, account number 252136000. This is CUP 20269. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, Meg Pittenger, Assistant Director of Planning, will provide the overview.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. As indicated, this is a conditional use permit to establish a commercial dog kennel at property located at 2170 Joshua Lane. This property is located outside of both of the growth areas. The parcel of land and all the surrounding property is zoned A, Agricultural Zoning District. The property is approximately 93 acres and contains the Epps Farm Supply Store, horse boarding, and several other agricultural uses. Commercial cattle on a large agricultural property fits with the character of the area and other animal care in keeping uses already common in the agricultural district. While the applicant recognizes that the number of dogs on the property has a potential to produce noise, the size of the property surrounding vegetation, and the nearest residential home being approximately 500 feet away reduces the possibility for noise, and there have been no known noise complaints to date. The size of the property allows the dogs to be housed and exercised within the interior of the farm while maintaining separation from the surrounding properties. The applicant's narrative states that the dogs at Lionheart have been operating on the property for 20 years and was established in 2006 with the dog breeding and offering dogs for adoption to families and individuals. The program focuses primarily on German Shepherds and the potential to not only be a companion dog, but also be a service dog. The owner works with dog trainers to evaluate each dog to determine whether or not they are a good fit as a service dog or would be better suited as a companion. Service dogs are placed with first responders and military veterans who are injured in the line of duty, as well as families with children on the autism spectrum to provide emotional support and increase independence. The program currently consists of 20 females, six males, and up to 30 puppies under one year of age. The applicant proposes to keep up to 60 dogs on site for breeding purposes. However, it is important to note that state law caps the commercial breeder at 50 dogs over one year of age without approval of the governing body. The daily operations and care of the dogs are handled by the owner, one paid employee, and 10 volunteers with approximately four individuals in addition to the owner present on the property during normal business hours. And at least one person is present overnight to monitor the animals on the property. During a normal day, the dogs are taken out of their enclosures in groups of 10 to 15 at a time for supervised exercise approximately every two hours. Buckets of food and water, and I'll have pictures of those for you later, are kept out all day to allow the dogs to graze as they wish to ensure they do not eat too fast. During the summer, ice is placed in the water throughout the day to keep it cool. The owner states that she maintains the financial resources necessary to provide ongoing food, veterinary care, housing, and overall management of the dogs on the property. The site overview that you can see on the screen now shows the layout of the property with the existing and proposed structures. The property contains the Epps Farm Supply Store, horse boarding, and several other agricultural uses such as chicken swaps and vegetable sales. Area A shown here is a closer view of the Epps Farm Store, the residential home, some dog shelters and pens, and this is the first area that you come to when you come onto the property. You can see pictures here of some of the many shelters that are provided, the whelping shed for the mothers and their puppies. Here are some additional pictures, and you can see the large buckets of food, the water troughs, and more of the shelters in the back of the barn. And lastly, again, more pictures of the area A, showing many of the pens that are located there. This is area B on the property, showing pens one, two, and three. Here are some additional, some pictures of those with the dog shelters and the fields that are used to exercise the dogs. And lastly, area C, which is furthest in the back, has dog kennels, the dog barn, other agricultural uses on the property. The barn has a misting system and several kennels and there's a pen outside where the dogs are able to play. And here are some photos of that area see in the back. In conclusion, this conditional use permit does sufficiently satisfy the criteria set forth in sections 31-306 and 31-406 of the Unified Development Ordinance. While staff recommends approval, staff recommends that the conditions noted in the staff report accompany the conditional use permit. I would like to bring your attention specifically to conditions three, six, seven, and eight. Number three is that no more than 26 dogs over the age of one year and 30 dogs under the age of one year shall be part of the commercial kennel operation at any one time. Number six, outdoor exercise and training of the dogs shall only occur from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Number seven, the commercial kennel must ensure that all animals are vaccinated in accordance with the Code of Virginia and each dog shall have a separate file in accordance with Section 3.1-6507.2 of the Code of Virginia. and that the owner shall maintain records for each dog for at least five years in accordance with three point two dash sixty five oh seven point two of the code of virginia and record shall be kept on the property and readily available upon request the planning commission At their July 21st, 26th meeting, voted 6-1 to approve a resolution recommending approval of this application. This concludes my presentation, and I'll stand by for any questions following the public hearing. I will note that Chief Lanier, the Chief of the Animal Control Bureau, is here, should you have any questions specifically of animal control.

Thank you, ma'am. 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 with the first speaker. Please come forward and provide your name and address and ask to speak in favor of this ordinance.

Hello, I'm Leslie Benson. I am the owner of Epps Farm Supply and the dogs at Lion Heart. I reside at 623 Murphy's Mill Road, and my farm is on 2170 Joshua Lane. We do have a residence there, and there is a full-time caretaker that lives there 24 hours. Good evening, and thank you for considering this application for the commercial kennel permit. The dogs at Lionheart started over 20 years ago with a passion for German shepherds. In 2019, I noticed a need for the service dogs for veterans and first responders injured in the line of duty. Serving those who first served us became our motto. I want to give you... a text that one of my veterans gave me. I have a lot of people that are in support, so I'm trying to hurry up. So I have his name and telephone number if you'd like to contact him too, but veterans are very private people. We have now had Bandit for more than two years and he has greatly helped me. I am a combat veteran and I struggle with PTSD and have been on the blink of suicide twice since having him. Each time Bandit has interrupted that thought process and laid on me to help calm me down. Once I was calmer, Bandit was no longer laid on me but moved my hand gently to keep me calm. I also suffer from Parkinson's and dementia and rely on Bandit for help with balance and mobility within my home. I have passed out three times and each time I have come to with Bandit licking my face and laying next to me. Bandit has greatly improved my abilities to stay in my house and keep my independence. I have tried to work with other service dog providers, but their wait lists are long and some require fundraising to help, cut costs, and due to my health issues, that is not something I can do. Also, some of the service dog providers require that the service dog be returned to the provider if the handler passes away, regardless of how long the dog has been with the handler and whether the dog has considered a member of the family. That leaves a whole family, that leaves in the whole, in the lives of the family with considering the loss, the considered the service dog as an extension of their family member. Leslie does not require that. Finally, if you have been able to work with Leslie, if I had not been able to work with Leslie to get Bandit, I might not be here. And that just sums up what we do at our farm. I'd like to ask certain people to come up. One is Terry.

We have our next speaker, please, to speak in favor. Ms. Benson, you can be seated as they come up.

Hi, my name is Terry Salas. I own Canine Possibilities that is located at 5495 Windsor Boulevard in Zuni. I am a certified professional dog trainer, certified through American Society of Canine Trainers International, animal behavioral colleges and also a member of International Association of Canine Professionals. I have trained several dogs that have come from the dogs at Lionheart. They have been of sound minds and easy to breed. Sorry, easy to train. Five of those have now been service dogs. The training process takes about two years during which I work closely with the handler and the dog. I know the handler's medical conditions and the needs so I can train the dog for specific tasks for that handler. And we can see how greatly the handler benefits from the dogs helping them through episodes like PTSD or TBI or fainting and how they benefit from the dogs helping them through everyday activities. I've also trained for mobility stability, psychiatric service dogs, diabetic alert, cardiac alert, seizure alert, hearing aids, and for autism. Any questions?

We have our next speaker, please, to speak in favor of this ordinance.

Good evening. My name's Sue Resnick. I live at 133 Chapel Drive here in Suffolk. Just to share a little bit of my experience with dogs, I've worked with Guiding Eyes for the Blind, which provides service dogs for the visually impaired. I was involved with them for 13 years, employed with them for seven. I also worked with Blue Path Service Dogs, which provides dogs for autistic children. Involved with them for 10 years, worked with them for the majority of this past year. as well. I've been involved with Leslie's farm for the past nine years and seven of those being involved with puppy testing and temperament testing to see which dogs would qualify and be best suited to go into the service dog world. Some dogs a little bit too smart. They make their own decisions. They're on their own agenda. That doesn't always make the best dog. Some of them just aren't secure enough to be able to take the task on hand. I've also helped with some of the introductory puppy classes that they've had on site, and we've done some off-site field trips with some of the service dog users so that they can see how to appropriately navigate in the obstacles that are in the world when they're on their outings. My last three years that I was involved with Guiding Eyes for the Blind, I was the brood stud program manager. We had a breeding colony of 150 dogs, which sounds like a tremendous amount, but not all dogs are bred at one time by any means. You definitely want to give the girls cycle time down. You also want to keep some of your dogs active while you're looking to see if their offspring would make a good replacement for them, so you don't want to take and quickly spay or neuter a dog that might still be needed. to keep that lineage going, especially when you're putting time into quality breeding. So with this request of the 26 breeding dogs, that's actually a very small colony because that many dogs will not be bred at one time, by all means. And you also have to look at, too, as far as... making sure that there's not an inbreeding ratio to go along with it. So if there's any relatability between them, you have to be selective on who's used. So that's all a piece of this process here, too. The dogs and what they can do as service animals, helping people with PTSD to make it through some of those tumultuous times, giving them the support, giving them pressure, being, as Leslie had mentioned, with Bandit and what he has helped his user with. has been amazing. And when you can see these teams work together and how it gives that user the confidence to go out into the world to continue to have as much normalcy as possible, it's just wonderful. Leslie is very giving. She's very thoughtful. And she's had this vision to help out with service dogs and help others to give forward. And that's where we are today is focusing on that part.

Our next speaker to speak in favor Good evening mayor Duman council My name is Debbie price and this is my husband Bob. We live at 2171 Joshua Lane, which is the closest right across the street and Our home is the closest residence to this property. This has always been a working farm since 2006. Ms. Benson has had dogs on that property. During that entire time, we have never experienced any issues that would cause us concern. She has always been a responsible neighbor and has operated her property with care and respect for those around her. As the closest neighbor, we'd be the first to experience any negative impacts. Instead, we are here to express our support. We believe this conditional use permit simply recognizes and allows the continued responsible use of the property. We personally would much rather see this property be used for a need like this and remain in agricultural use as a well-managed kennel than be converted to something more, for example, a hog farm. or be sold and rezoned to a residential. So we respectfully ask that you approve this application, and thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, ma'am. That concludes our time for the proponents. There will be a five-minute rebuttal period if we have any opponents. At this time, we'll have a 15-minute period for opponents, those that are opposed to this ordinance. Do we have anyone present who would like to speak in opposition?

Good evening. Rachel Bellis, 501 Front Street, Norfolk. Good evening, Mayor Duman and City Council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Rachel Bellis, and I'm here on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, and our nearly 156,000 members and supporters in Virginia. We urge you to deny the conditional use permit application for the commercial kennel known as Dogs at Lionheart on Joshua Lane. According to the application, the owner has been operating this breeding operation for approximately 20 years without the permit that would have been required for a commercial kennel. Rather than asking whether this facility should be legitimized, City Council should consider what it means that such a puppy mill has been operating outside the permitting process for two decades. Public records obtained by PETA show that Suffolk Animal Control found 117 dogs on the property in June. During that visit, officials noted dogs lacking access to potable water, concerns about ventilation, and a loose wire from an electric fence located within the kennel area and within reach of the dogs. Equally concerning is the massive number of dogs and puppies reportedly housed on the property given the minuscule number of people to provide care. According to the application, the dogs depend primarily on the owner, one employee, and unspecified volunteers for their daily care. We have never heard of a volunteer program at a commercial breeding business. How many animals does the Suffolk Animal Shelter house and how many staff care for them? It would take a team of trained, qualified people to provide adequate exercise, enrichment, and socialization to more than 100 dogs and puppies every day. The General Assembly has already recognized that commercial dog breeding operations pose systemic animal welfare concerns and enacted specific safeguards to address them. That law limits commercial breeders to no more than 50 breeding dogs over one year of age unless the locality expressly approves a higher number a higher number through a public hearing. It prohibits breeding female dogs before 18 months of age or after eight. It requires annual veterinary certification before breeding, and it mandates extensive record keeping and oversight. The purpose of these requirements is to ensure that dogs used for breeding are not treated as mere production animals, allowing dogs who are plainly part of a commercial breeding operation to be reclassified as personal dogs to avoid these state safeguards would create a loophole the General Assembly did not intend. It is if this applicant wishes to exceed the limits established by state law, that decision should be made transparently and with full recognition that this operation falls within Virginia's commercial breeding framework, not through a labeling exercise that effectively sidesteps the law. City Council should evaluate this request based on the operation's actual breeding activities, not on how individual dogs are misleadingly designated on paper. Please don't set a dangerous precedent by knowingly creating a loophole in the Code of Virginia. And we hope that the Suffolk City Attorney has carefully reviewed how this vote would interact with state law. AT A TIME WHEN SHELTERS THROUGHOUT HAMPTON ROADS ARE OVERFLOWING WITH DOGS, INCLUDING SHEPHERDS, IN NEED OF HOMES, APPROVING A COMMERCIAL BREEDING OPERATION OF THIS SIZE SENDS THE MESSAGE THAT PUPPY MILLS HAVE SUFFIX STAMP OF APPROVAL. WE RESPECTFULLY ASK THAT COUNCIL CONSIDER THE WELFARE OF THE ANIMALS INVOLVED, THE DOCUMENTED CONCERNS FOUND ON THE PROPERTY, AND THE FACT THAT THIS OPERATION HAS REPORTEDLY BEEN CONDUCTED WITHOUT THE APPROPRIATE PERMIT FOR TWO DECADES. No dog should spend a lifetime in perpetual confinement, bred repeatedly, and deprived of the normal experiences that make life worth living. Companionship, play, joy, exploration, and love. And for these reasons, we urge you to vote no on this application. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. We have the next speaker to speak in opposition.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and City Manager. My name is Sue Copeland. I own property at 6148 Old Myrtle Road in Suffolk. I'm here to ask the City Council to oppose denial, and my reason specifically is the amount of dogs. We started at 117 here at this property on Joshua Lane. I don't have any problems with Ms. Benson, her farm, her store, any other animals that she's ever had there. I think she's a wonderful person. I'm not here to put anybody down or say that there's a problem, so to speak. I'm here in reference to there's too many dogs. I like the idea of the rescue animals. I think they're in need, and I think she's doing a good thing with that situation. Again, I was just stressed there's just too many dogs. These are animals that we need, that she is providing. I'm sure if I needed one that I could go to someone, and I know she's a good person to handle everything that she's doing. But again, too many dogs. And if the state code caps up to 50 animals or dogs in a commercial breed, breeder, in an agriculture district, then what are we talking about her personal dogs, her pets? And then you're going to turn around and people bring the animals back on a commercial, then that's going to add to that total. She already can have, I understand, five personal ones. So that's 55. And yes, there is a difference in how many adults and how many puppies, but it still comes out to the same amount. We're looking at, if you're going to say 50 for the state of Virginia, then there's five more that she can have in her personal home. So again, I still have issues with the amount. And you know, I never thought about this till this afternoon because of some issues that I have experienced before with commercial breeding kennels. I haven't heard anybody say in this issue what she wants to do, what or how her financial records are showing. I haven't heard anybody say anything about emergency evacuation plans. So where do we stand on this? Again, I don't want to put her down. I think she's a good person for our community and all that she does. I bought from her store. I bought animals from her. I am an animal person. Again, I'm just here mainly to point out some things, but mainly the amount of animals that she has there now. I cannot see two people as she spoke of before taking two hours to take care of all these dogs. I don't think that's possible. And again, who are the other people? How far are they away? Not only to help in situations, in the case of an emergency evacuation, none of that's even been presented to you yet. So again, I appreciate the time you've let me speak this evening and asking for a denial. Some kind of reduction, I can't. There's really no law here in our city to say a limit, but this state of Virginia does have a cap. So I thank you for your time.

We have our next speaker. We've got about a minute and a half left for opposition time. Anybody else like to step up and make a brief statement? Hearing none, we have a five-minute rebuttal period for the opponents to address whatever concerns they'd like to address.

Hello. I would like everyone who volunteers at my farm to stand up. This is only an example of the people that help me out. What we're asking today is a commercial kennel permit to be able to breed German Shepherd dogs for service dogs and for personal family use. The amount of dogs. Several of y'all have been out to my farm and seen my setup. They're very well socialized. They get out and play. In the morning time, I run them and jog them around my farm for an hour. They're very well socialized. If you come into Epps, there's always two or three, four dogs that are running loose. People look forward to seeing my dogs at the store. Why so many? We keep, we do not release our dogs that we are done breeding. We keep them. We spay and neuter them. They're our family. During COVID, owning a feed store, owning acreage, people were dumping dogs off. Should I have referred them to the animal shelter? Yes. But my heart wouldn't allow that. And now they are family. Now, I believe in the city of Suffolk there is no limit for the amount of dogs that you can have, personal dogs. So I've always gotten my kennel license, and to be honest, I thought that was it. I had to get my kennel license from the treasurer, and I was good. I am in compliance of that. It was only six months ago that I was aware that I had to get a business license and a conditional use permit to be able to breed. I spend up to $3,000 of my personal money for food. I have a vet that comes out twice a year to vaccinate and check my dogs and make sure I'm doing everything right. It's not this great puppy mill out there. It's just a love that I have for my dogs. And they're very well taken care of. And you're more than welcome to come out and see my setup. I know on paperwork it sounds like a lot. And maybe to some people it is. But I do have the resources to take care of them. I have the help and the love of people for my dogs. And for in case of an emergency, we do have a plan. And it is in our narrative. So it is in our narrative. I love my dogs. What I'm applying today is a commercial kennel permit to be able to breed. So thank you.

Do we have anyone else who would like to speak during the rebuttal period? We've got about a minute and a half.

Hi, I'm Vaughn Walker. I live at 1808 Dockwood Trail, Chesapeake. I've worked for Leslie for years now and We comply with animal control, got the shelters ventilated. They have clean and potable water constantly. It takes me two hours alone in the morning to do it. It's very well capable, especially even with more people. It's very easy. We have it all under control, like, help-wise. And, like, I don't know. Her dogs are very well taken care of. Like, they're very spoiled. Like, I don't know. Like, zero spoiling.

Mom, do you want to come up here?

My mom also helps.

I volunteer out there. I also board my horses. We're there twice a day. Excuse me, ma'am.

Can you state your name and address, please? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you.

My name is Darlene Walker, and I live at 1808 Duckwood Trail in Chesapeake. That was my daughter, and we've had horses out there for years, and like I said, we go twice a day. And if Leslie does get a little sick dog that needs care, me and my daughter take it home, and it's with us 24 hours a day, sleeping in the bed and taken care of. So she loves her dogs just like she loves her children. And she's like an amazing person. And if you've ever been to her farm, then you know the dogs are taken care of.

Thank you, ma'am. That concludes our public hearing. This public hearing is now closed. Sorry, we're running out of time. An ordinance has been presented for council's consideration and a motion would be in order. What is your pleasure? Questions, comments, or a motion? Vice Mayor Ward.

I just want a possibility to ask Kevin. This is about the third or fourth time that someone who wanted a kennel and each time they come up, Besides this one here and another one, who department is that about kennels and stuff like that? I mean, it's like saying that do a department have to, when they want a kennel, we be aware of it. We don't have nobody going out there and checking this out before they even come to us and talk about this because this is about the fourth time And each time you come, they got a lot of dogs or don't have a lot. What's the minimum dog? You know, you come into us about kennel. I mean, I know Mr. Duman, he deal with dogs. So there's not no question. I don't know how many of us deal with these dogs. And unfortunately, I used to raise Rock Rolls years ago. And it wasn't that many, maybe 10. And I had to get rid of them because of what I was saying. But And it just came to me, and it's not your behalf, but when I see that commercial on TV about them dogs, it's just, then when they come up to council, I don't know, just imagine that. I don't know. I don't know we have to put something to that, a budget or something, but I'm just saying, this is about the fourth time, Kennel, And each time it come up, the person who owns it is not doing the job. I just want to know, who's in charge of that? Do we got anybody in charge to go out and look at these kennels before they come to council?

So I can think of, obviously we're here to talk about this situation. We had one previously this year. Those are the two that come to mind. These are both after the fact issues. What we're talking about and why we're dealing with them is the discussion about land use. And so from a zoning perspective, the Unified Development Ordinance, what it allows with a conditional use permit. it's come to the attention of the staff that we have operations without the appropriate land use approvals in place. And so they've been running without those approvals in place. There is some confusion that happens from time to time with our interaction with business license and land use. And so it can be a confusing environment. But these are both, in both situations, they were and it came to the staff's attention that they needed to get in compliance with the UDO. And so that's what this application is for, trying to catch up and see if this is an appropriate use based upon the application. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but those are the facts.

I still, what I'm saying to you, I understand. Just like when organizations like PETA come up who deal with dogs. And they come up with this, and they explain what goes on and what should happen. Here I go listening. And I talked to Ms. Benson, and I called her back. And I said to her, you sound real about the dog and stuff. And she asked me to come out. But unfortunately, Ms. Benson, I had so much things I've been up to doing. But like I said, I want to be fair. All right.

Go ahead.

Council Member Bennett.

Okay, thank you. Well, my comments will be kind of a question, I guess. I was looking at the number of dogs, 117 dogs, and one full-time person, and I think there's six volunteers. But if you're walking 117 dogs a couple hours a day, one person, that's a whole lot of walking. to try and walk that many dogs. So I just have a concern with the number of dogs that are being presented here in this application. So I think it's listening to what Peter and them were saying about the maintenance of the dog, maintaining dogs. And I belong to a hunt club, and we have some dogs, but they're hunt dogs. And it's not near that many. I think we probably have about 10 or 12. And that is a task itself, trying to maintain those dogs and keep them healthy and give them shots and feeding them and all that. So I just have a concern, really, with the number of dogs. But there's one full-time person there to handle them and six volunteers. So that's just my concern.

Councilmember Johnson.

I'd like to ask the officers. Do you mind? I think we can clear a few things up here by talking with animal control and what you experienced when you were out at the facility checking on the dogs and checking on them. At any time when you found compliance issues, I think, correct?

Yeah, so we had initially gone out in January, and that's when we had notified zoning that there was – that they didn't have their kennel licenses, and that they had too many dogs on the property. So that's when zoning had contacted planning, and they realized that they needed a conditional use permit to be a commercial dog breeder. I then went out with planning in June, and we walked the entire property, and there were some issues noted, which I just pull up my notes that I have. Some of the issues that I had noted were with the water, it was not potable. So in the pictures, you saw that there was water troughs. The dogs were actually getting in the water troughs and pretty much bathing and trying to cool off. So that water is not potable. It was dirty. So that was one of the issues that I had addressed with Ms. Benson and her other staff member that was there. There was two dogs that were on the property that needed medical treatment. She actually had her vet on staff, actually out there with us when we walked the entire property. The vet did treat both of those dogs. One was an ear injury, one was a skin issue, which were addressed immediately. One of the hazards in the pens, there was a hot wire that was loose. and I made Ms. Benson aware of that. And then there was some shelter concerns. Uh, one of the dog's houses had like collapsed. And then there was another dog that there was a structure out there, but it didn't provide shade if it was out there, like to prevent, uh, protect it from the weather. Um, which Ms. Benson, um, had spoke with her worker that was there, uh, to advise him how to fix that. Um, another thing, there was a Connex box that houses dogs that has a, um, both doors open and then there was a window at the end. It was very hot in there. The vet had recommended to put like an exhaust fan at the window portion of it to kind of pull some of that hot air and then Ms. Benson had come up with the idea to move the fans lower to be closer to the dogs and The vet that was out there did advise that she was comfortable with the housing of the dogs. And then when I went back out in July on the 14th, all of those things had been addressed and it was still another hot day. And it was actually cooler inside the Connex box than it was outside. And the water issue was addressed. They still have the water troughs, which the dogs are going to drink out of the water troughs. They're going to drink out of the big pools that they have out there. But they had put four by fours in the ground and then are hanging feed buckets with fresh water that way. They can just grab it and replace the water throughout the day. They're still going to drink the water that's dirty, even if they have the potable water. And then one of the other issues was the rabies certificates. Initially, I was provided with 66 rabies certificates. Only 24 of them were I was able to match those up with dogs that were on the property. On the 17th of this month, I received additional 13 certificates. One was a duplicate. So of the 12, only six were matched up. So of the 100 dogs on the property, over the age of four months, there was actually only 30 rabies certificates that I was able to match up with the dogs.

But you felt comfortable with the fact that she was trying to – addressed all of the concerns.

She addressed the concerns, yes. I gave her time to address it, and we had scheduled a visit for the following month, and her worker was going to start working on it that day.

And as it goes forward into the future, how would we as a city address a facility like that? If we approve this facility and it moves forward, do we have a way to monitor it and to make sure that things are continuing to move in the right direction?

So the state codes allows for us to inspect the property if we receive a complaint or if we just want to go out and inspect it. And then the code has guidelines for the record keeping and what they have to keep up with and that they have to comply with 3.26503 for providing adequate care to all of the animals that are on the property. So there's a list of things that they have to keep up with, and we can show up at any time to inspect that. And she has to allow us or the state vet's office to go out and inspect.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I guess my concern is I just want to make sure that the public is aware that this is not somebody that is abusing these dogs. This is not a situation that she loves these dogs, in all honesty. I've been out there and I've experienced the love that she has for these dogs. And as far as abuse goes, they're not being abused. They're being looked after, being maintained. Mistakes might be made occasionally. Part of this is a land use issue that it is a rural farm that there is no number of dogs that you can have. I mean, it's open to, am I right, city manager? Any number of dogs you can have on a rural farm? Companion dogs.

Companion dogs on agricultural.

But there's no way to know. Right. Okay. So my concern is that I have a lot of concerns, but this one really bothers me because we've got a case here that this, in all honesty, I don't know anybody one of them visited would have known. She loves her dogs. Did she do it wrong for 20 years or whatever it was? I might have done the same thing because it's easy to overlook these things sometimes. But now she's trying to rectify. So the point is, do we want to allow her to rectify and to move into the next year with a better, you know, I have a real concern. But thank you. I appreciate what you guys do, and you're what allows us to try to make these decisions because we know we've got backup with our animal control because that is what's needed in a case like this. I'm not really sure how I feel about it right now other than I don't want her to lose her dogs. Um, so I'll let someone else speak and then I'll come back. Maybe you gotta wait. Okay.

Council member Butler Barlow.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I appreciate everyone's comments. Um, the, the proponents and the opponents, both. Um, I spent two hours out at, um, Ms. Benson's farm earlier in the week. It was hot. She has a lot of animals, and I told her it was 20-year-old me wanted exactly what she has, you know, one of everything, ponies, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, the whole nine yards, goats. What I saw in the time that I spent with Leslie was, again, a lot of animals. I didn't see a single one that was not well cared for. Just a little bit of background. I'm an animal lover. I have a degree in animal science. I worked at a vet clinic for three years. I know what healthy animals look like. I didn't see any animal that was not well cared for. I didn't see anything that concerned me as an animal lover. Um, it is, I think I shared with her, I'm glad it's not my job to take care of all these animals because on a 95 degree day, it's a big job. Um, but again, I didn't see anything that concerned me, um, looking at the way that she's operating her business and her kennel and, um, her, um, animal operation. So, um, It's challenging. I think we've had lots of situations in the past where we have someone who is doing business in the city of Suffolk, no matter what their business is, that doesn't realize that they're supposed to have a business license or a conditional use permit or name some other thing that's in city code that maybe we don't realize that we have to have. And I think Ms. Benson is making every effort to rectify that and to bring her up to code as far as the city regulations, and I feel like she's doing her best to comply with animal control to get the facility at a level that they can agree is being operated well. I also would like to point out that Planning Commission has passed this on to us with a recommendation to approve, and staff has also said that they approve this particular application. So I just wanted to make those comments. And again, I spend a considerable amount of time out there, and I really do not have any fundamental concerns. So I would like to go ahead and make a motion to approve, knowing that there will be additional comments and questions.

OK, we'll get a motion for approval from Council Member Butler-Barlow, Council Member Rector.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can the animals control officer come back up there just real quick, please. What brought you out there initially in January?

So initially in January when we had the really cold, um, like a couple of weeks of, um, the snow, the, the freezing weather, somebody had, um, I believe that somebody had gone to Epps farm, um, to purchase supplies for something and notice the dogs and contacted us.

Okay. So it was, you were called out of a sense of concern. not anything specific. I mean, I realized the cold was the specificity, but it wasn't like they had seen abuse or neglect.

For us, it's routine, an animal welfare check to check on the conditions of the dogs. I don't have all of my notes in front of me for that specific call, but I did actually respond out there with several other officers, which initially was very alarming to them, but we actually had three brand new officers, so it was a good learning experience, but I can imagine five, six animal control officers rolling up to your house or your property. You're like, oh my, you think you're going to take all your dogs. But it was just a learning experience for a lot of my new officers. And some of the water, obviously with it being cold, the water was frozen over. Some of the housing didn't have the proper windbreak on it Which we had provided her the information on that like what needed to be fixed back then and then when we had followed up Within the next couple weeks that issue had been Fixed but the concern was the amount of mud which was we had a bunch of snow You can't really help that with the mud and the dogs walking through the snow so Overall, health-wise of the dogs, just like Councilman Butler-Balo had stated, the overall health of the dogs, we haven't seen any issues. One of the dogs was on the lean side, but the vet was out there and stated that the dog was fine. Okay.

Thank you for that.

Yes, sir.

Vice Mayor, I'm sorry. Hang on. The only other comment I want to make is that I did do a site visit earlier in the week, And one of the things that sort of surprised me was when I drove up and got out of my car, you would never have known there was a dog on the premises. I walked into the store. There were four, at least three, maybe four German Shepherds laying on the floor. I don't think any of them really cared that I was there or not. Perhaps if I had tried, you know, something physical against Ms. Benson, it might have been a little bit different story. But, you know, they just, I was of no concern to them. And when we got out, and hopped in her Range Rover and rode around the property. They all rode around and danced with us and whatnot. And then when we finished, I told her, I said, it's perfectly quiet out here. And I said, there are a hundred dogs on this property and I don't hear a single one of them, which to be honest with you, it was a little bit of amazing to me. So I don't think this, the fact that they've been operating for 20 years Under the radar as it were I think is a pretty clear Indication that there's not anything in terms of the how the animals are being treated nefarious going on So with that I'll just wait to hear the rest of the comments from my fellow council people vice mayor Ward Yes I'm so

You say you've seen about 100 dogs? How many dogs do you see out there?

I went through each individual pen that was on the property and tallied how many dogs were in there. Ms. Benson and her staff member had provided me with names of the dogs that they did know the names of. And after I went through each part of the property, there was 117 dogs on the property. Of those 117, 100 of them were over the age of four months.

So it's big enough? The property's big enough?

I mean, it's almost 100 acres. I walked it. I didn't ride in the Range Rover. They did offer to let me ride in the side-by-side. They did offer to let me ride in the side-by-side, but I did walk the whole entire property while I was out there.

All right, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Council Member Williams.

Yes, this office, if you would please come back up.

You might as well stay up there, ma'am.

Okay. You know, I understand that Ms. Benson has been operating for 20 years under the radar. Okay. So over the past 10 years, how many times have they been cited for anything? You know? Or have they been cited?

Not that I'm aware of, but I'm not a normal street officer every single day. I'm the supervisor, so I have officers that actually do the patrol. I would have to go back and look at our call history, but from what I'm aware of, she has not been cited. Okay.

Thank you. Council Member Johnson.

This is my second time so I'm not going to say any more. I'm good. I would like to second it. I think this is a situation that sometimes we do the right thing because of the right thing. Now I'd like to see that the paperwork is filed on all the dogs and that we know that they've all had the shots and that everybody is legit and secure and all of that and that's something that I think that Ms. Benson is more than happy to do. But I do think that this is a case that we just missed it for 20 years, and I think we want to do right what's there now. And sometimes it just takes a wake-up call to make us all respond. So I'd like to second. Again, motion for approval.

On the floor, motion made by Council Member Barlow, seconded by Council Member Johnson. Any other discussion from anyone on council before I put my two cents worth in it?

Okay.

I normally speak last. Chief, I'm going to get you up there one more time, I promise. That's it. We're not going to charge you anything. This is part of our fitness program with the city.

Yeah, I should go to work.

I think you get a refund on your insurance if you're in the fitness program.

Oh, well, I don't pay for city insurance since my husband's retired military. So it's a good deal for you guys.

From your standpoint, I know you noted when you went out there, you noted some deficiencies. The majority of them sound like they've been addressed with the exception of the rabies vaccines maybe?

Correct.

So how long does Ms. Benson have to get those in line, or are you going to go back out there and check that part of it?

So initially, when I had gone out in June, she had the 66 rabies certificates. That's what she had on the property. And I told her that I needed the other ones, and I also explained to her that I was only able to match up the 24 rabies. Um, like I said, there are several of the dogs that don't have names. The rabies certificates have names on them. I went through and made a sheet and highlighted the ones that actually went with the dogs that were on the property. Um, didn't hear from her. And then, uh, just a couple of days ago, she sent me a text with some pictures of them. Um, I mean, ultimately she's in violation of not having the rabies certificates, which is a suitable offense. Um, the vet was out there. Um, she states that that comes out twice a year. Uh, but of the, 100 dogs over the age of four months, there's only 30 of them. So 70 dogs have no proof of rabies.

How long does she have to get these rabies vaccines?

I mean, she's known since January that... that we had requested the rabies information in March. I believe that she had spoken with Officer Alpert, who is no longer with us, and he had contacted one of the vet's offices, and I believe that he had seen some of the rabies certificates, but that vet's office has since closed, and this gentleman practices through, like, Dinwiddie County.

Okay, so with the exception of rabies, I'll get you up in just a second, Ms. Benson. With the exception of the rabies, the other deficiencies have been addressed to your knowledge?

Yes, the deficiencies that I've observed, yes.

Okay, and with that being said, will she be in compliance with local and state statutes as they're written now?

For everything except for what? For commercial dog rabies?

With the exception of the rabies.

Yeah, so with the exception of the rabies— Not counting about the zoning issue, but— Yeah, and once she— becomes a commercial dog breeder. There's other things that she has to comply with, which is record keeping, which I had spoke with her about that and provided her with that information. And when I was there the last time, she had a stack of binders where she was getting ready to start organizing everything for each dog that's on the property.

Okay. Thank you very much. Ms. Benson, did you want to address the rabies issue?

I do have 80 certificates for rabies. We just didn't match them up to the pens, and we're in the process of doing that. We did call different vet clinics that we deal with. There was a shortage of vaccines through the state of Virginia. And there was a shortage of the tags, too. We do have an appointment for the remaining dogs and for the bookkeeping. And I told Chief Lanier this, that We're doing a binder with all the certificates that go to that pen, you know, the health certificates and a profile of each dog. Um, so we are working on that. So, but it, it's not that I'm not trying to do the rabies shots. It's that just like doctors, vets are so back and there's lack of them. It's hard to get them to come out there. It could be a month. It could be three months. The clinic that she's talking about, he is, um, he is still certified through the state of Virginia. As a veterinarian, he does not have his clinic anymore, but he is certified. He did come out, and he did me a favor, which, you know, that's great. And he did all the dogs up front. He did 51 dogs. So he is a licensed vet, and he did it as a favor to me.

Okay. Talk about it a little bit.

Everybody else was booked.

Okay. Just, you know, before we start up the conversation, I was kind of torn with this, especially initially. I've also been out to the property and, you know, Ms. Benson took me for a ride and having most of y'all, anyone who knows me knows I'm kind of into dogs to some extent. Not only when, I mean, I used to raise and show German Shepherds myself from the time I was a kid, just as far as shepherds are concerned. I spent 12 years on the main society, three years as its president. ordinances we got one of the first ordinance so I'm very very you know I've got a passion for animal welfare also if someone had come to me and said we have an application of someone wants to get a kennel license that hasn't got one in the past and they have 117 dogs I wouldn't say no I would say hell no it ain't gonna happen My hat's off to Ms. Benson because I think she's very, very unique. There's a lot of confusion looking into the kennel situation. The statutes themselves are very confusing. I'm going to make it a point that we address our ordinances. There are two types of kennels. There's a commercial kennel and then a kennel for your personal dogs, but they're not the same thing, and they have different requirements. So individuals are allowed to have five dogs without a kennel license, personal dogs. If they go more than that, they need a kennel license. But they don't need the permitting that you need if it's not a commercial operation. They're just personal dogs. Our city code with agricultural zoning does not have a limit as to how many personal dogs you can have. I just found this out doing my research. We're the only city that doesn't have a limit. I am going to request and get on the agenda that we send this to planning and have them look at our ordinances so we can address where we want to be as far as personal dogs are concerned. As far as the commercial is concerned, The state has put a limit on it. I thought it was 60, but I've heard 50 thrown around. I thought it was 60, that you can have no more than 60 in a commercial kennel with breeding and what have you. Ms. Benson's setup is, I would say, unique, but it's more than unique. I mean, she's making it work. And there has not been any animal abuse cases that I know of and it doesn't look like. Having been around dogs my entire life, I never got out of the four-wheeler gate or whatever we were riding in. But as we drove by the pens, the dogs weren't receding into their shelters or whatever. They were coming up to the fence. They were friendly. They wanted to be engaged with people. So that tells me they are getting some socialization Because without that, that wouldn't happen. You know, I'm smart enough to know that, so I can look at it. Now, the other caveat to this application is we've got 117 dogs. Of the 117 dogs, we're talking about 56 being the commercial part of it, and then the rest of them are all personal dogs. I mean, that's a lot of personal dogs. Now, I don't quite understand why, and you don't have to answer it, but having dealt with breeders for years and years and years and years that don't breed that many, but, you know, breed them and show them or what have you, when they retire dogs at maybe five or six or whatever, then they'll try to rehome those, you know, and kind of accept applications like they would for a puppy, and then they place them in homes. That may be something. I mean, I know you love them all. But that may be something because I think What your challenge is going to be if this is approved Your challenge is going to have to be the record-keeping you have to have There's a significant amount of record-keeping Records on each one of these, you know, I'm looking at the conditional use permit You know in the commercial end of it Of course, the vaccinations we talked about. Maintain records for each dog for at least five years in accordance with 3.260 by the Code of Virginia. Records shall be kept on the property and readily available upon request, which means if Chief Lanier sends one of our officers by and says, we want to know how many dogs you got. We want to see the records on them. You're not going to be able to stumble, fumble around and maybe come up with them in six months. It's going to be I know you get a lot to do, but somebody has to be assigned the task of keeping up with these records to ensure that they are made available. If this is approved, you have to understand this is a conditional use permit, which means that if you're in violation of any of these, all we have to do is be informed of it and you can't do anything anymore. having spent a couple hours or so with you, and you were asking me, do you have any questions? I said, I really don't have any questions, but that's a lot of dogs. How many times did I say that? About ten. You know, and you've got to keep them, the idea that you've got to keep them separated, the commercial dogs versus the personal dogs. And I know in the personal dog area, you know, there were dogs there that hadn't been neutered in personal, but you're just dealing with this right now. The personal dog area, there were dogs that hadn't been neutered. There were dogs that had litters in the last couple of months or so. I mean, I've got pretty good eyes. I know when they kind of dropped some puppies in a recent amount of time. So those are the kind of things you're going to have to address. But my hat is off to you and the volunteers for doing what you've done. This is after the fact, but from my standpoint, The only way I would ever do it is after the fact because you've kind of proven that you're able to provide a service and are taking care of the dogs. Now, in my house, I'd have to figure out how to get 117 dogs on the bed. They don't make one that big. But in reality, you get everything straight with the city. You're adhering to the local rules. codes and you'd be adhering to the state code. So it's just a matter of doing what you need to do to ensure that you are in compliance with everything that you've got to do now. So with that being said, reluctantly, but only because it's you, I would support the request. Do we have anyone else who would like to speak at this time? Okay, hearing none, we have a motion on the floor for approval made by Councilmember Butler-Barlow and seconded by Councilman Johnson. Councilmembers, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of six to one with Councilmember Bennett voting in opposition.

Okay, we're gonna move to our next public hearing. One second, I lost my place. Okay, we've got an ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a daycare, family daycare, five to 12 children on property located at 1017 Meadows Reed Circle, zoning map 26F, parcel HM asterisk six, account number 254000596. This is CUP 202616. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, Meg Pittenger, Assistant Director of Planning, will provide the overview.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Again, good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. This is a conditional use permit for a family day home located at... 1017 Meadows Reach Circle. This is located in the Hill Point Meadows subdivision. Currently the applicant is operating a child daycare center with four children which is permitted by right. This is in the central growth area and you can see where the property is located here in Hill Point. The applicant has a large fenced-in backyard. It exceeds the requirements of outdoor play area that is required and also has sufficient adequate parking within the driveway on the site and also available in the street. The applicant proposes to use these areas on the first floor of the single family home for the daycare, which complies with the required square footage for a family day home. You can see here some pictures that the applicant provided of the interior space used for the daycare and the exterior space with the fenced-in backyard, again, which is also used for the daycare as part of the requirement for fenced-in outdoor space. And here are some additional properties. You may be able to tell in one of the aerial photographs that there was a trampoline on the property. The applicant, after receiving the staff report, removed the trampoline because typically state code requirements do not permit trampolines in these areas. The applicant proposes to operate Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the outdoor area by the code requirements will be only from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Planning Commission at their meeting on July 21st voted 7 to 0 to approve a resolution recommending approval of this application with the conditions And with that, that concludes my presentation. I'll stand by for any questions at the conclusion of the public hearing.

Okay, thank you very much. Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, would 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 with the first speaker. Please come forward and provide their name and address. And let's speak in favor of this ordinance.

Janelle Turner, 1017 Meadows Reach Circle. Good evening. I am the owner of Tiny Town Home Child Care. I started my journey over 10 years ago as a family child care provider serving military families. That experience inspired me to open my own licensed family day home so I could help even more families here in the Suffolk community. I was fortunate to be selected for the Minus 9 to 5 pilot program. Through their mentorship and financial assistance, they helped me open Tiny Town Home Child Care. With my husband's upcoming retirement after 23 years in the Navy, we're excited to begin this chapter together as he joins me in serving our community. I'm grateful for the Planning Commission's recommendation for the opportunity to be here tonight. I'm respectfully asking City Council to approve my conditional use permit so that I can expand Tiny Town Home Child Care and provide more safe, reliable childcare options for Suffolk's working families. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, ma'am. We have the next speaker to speak in favor of this ordinance. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak in favor? Hearing none, is there anyone to speak in opposition? Is there anyone present who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Hearing no additional speakers, this public hearing is now closed. Council, an ordinance has been presented for your consideration. What is your pleasure? Council Member Bennett.

Move for approval.

A motion for approval from Council Member Bennett. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Second.

Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. Any discussion in 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 six to zero.

Our next public hearing is an ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a daycare, family day home, five to 12 children. One property located at 145 Patriots Walk Drive. This is zoning map 27M, parcel 35. Account number 306002712. This is CUP 202617. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, Meg Pittenger, Assistant Director of Planning, has the update.

Thank you, Kevin. Good evening. Again, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, this is another CUP for a family day home located at 145 Patriots Walk in the Patriots Walk neighborhood. You can see here where it is located. The property is zoned RLM. Again, this is a single-family home. The applicant wishes to operate the family day home for up to 12 children. They're going to be operating it by the applicant with no additional employees at this time. They will need to comply with any state staffing ratios, which is dependent on the children's age. They are requesting the normal daytime operating care of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., but they're also requesting overnight care to be conducted in accordance with state regulations. You can see here on the screen the applicant again has the required amount of fenced in area in the outdoor play area in the rear and adequate parking in the driveway and also parking on the street. You can see here kind of what that looks like in a normal day. And more pictures provided by the applicant of the backyard. Again, you can see that it's adequately fenced to provide that play area in the rear yard. This applicant is a little bit different than the previous one. They are proposing to use space both on the first floor and on the second floor to provide the required amount of square footage within the home. Here are some photos that the applicant provided of the interior space. Here's a picture of, they've got a gate at the top of the stairs. There is that runner on the stairs that was only there while they were having some work done on the inside of the house, so that is not there while the children are there. And some additional photos of the space up there for the children with the cots. And here are some additional pictures of the space and also the kitchen that is used as part of the family day home. Planning Commission at their July 21st meeting did vote 7-0 to approve resolution recommending approval of this application with the conditions. And again, I will stand by the conclusion of the public hearing if you have any questions.

Thank you, Meg.

Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, 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 their name and address to speak in favor of this ordinance?

Good evening, Council. I'm Henry Hunter. I live in 145 Patriots Walk. I'm here in representation of my wife, who is the owner, which is Simone Hunter, of Zanita's 11th Family Day Home.

Okay, could I get you to pull the speaker up a little bit? You're a big guy. There we go. Okay. Thank you. And I don't hear that well.

All right. Good evening, members of the City Council. My name is Henry Hunter, and I'm the husband of Simone Hunter, which is the owner of Zanita's 11 Arms, which is her Family Day Home, licensed through the Department of Education. Her goal, which is our goal together, is to provide a safe and nurturing structure, dependable child care option for families in our community. I am seeking approval to serve a maximum of 12 children ranging from six weeks to 12 weeks old and the age of our residential home. The child care program will utilize and designate areas of our home, including a loft in the primary child care and learning space, and the kitchen for meal preparation for feeding, the second floor, the hall bathroom and the backyard will be supervised for outdoor activities. And also, I also want to recognize today's family are increasingly complex with work schedules. While I'm not currently providing overnight care, my future goal is to offer offer overnight care for approximately hours of 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. to support families who work overnight. The Need 11 Arms is about more than just operating a child care business. It's about providing families dependable resources that allow families to work and maintain employment to support their households. We are a loving and caring family, and we wish to please our environment and the people that surround us. and the commitment to sustain and maintain the compliance through the state and local requirements, being respectable of the resident community in which we operate. We respectfully ask the City of the Council for our support and help of disapproval. Thank you for your time.

We have a next speaker to speak in favor of this ordinance. We have anyone else present who would like to speak in favor? Hearing none, do we have anyone who would like to speak in opposition? Anyone present to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Hearing no additional speakers, this public hearing is now closed. Council, it's your pleasure. Council Member Rector.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank Ms. Hunter and Ms. Turner for opening their homes to the children today. We've seen several of these applications in the last few months, but trust me, it's just a drop in the bucket of the need for child care, not only within the city of Suffolk, but within our whole region. So with that, I'd like to offer a motion for approval.

A motion for approval from Council Member Rector, Council Member Williams. I'd like to second that, Mayor. Second from Council Member Williams. Any further 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 seven to zero.

Our next public hearing is an ordinance to amend sections 31-406C, 31-407C, 31-408B, 31-602A, 31-602B, 31-602C, 31-606A, 31-701C, and 31-724 of the Unified Development Ordinance of the City of Suffolk, Virginia. This is OTA 2026-6. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, I'd advise you to get comfortable. Meg Pinger, Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development, is going to walk you through a busy General Assembly and the impacts to the UDO. Good luck, Meg.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Again, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, I will apologize in advance for the length of this presentation. The General Assembly, as you are aware, did not do us any favors in this session. Um, so the general assembly session, uh, resulted in numerous land use and zoning bills that were passed and approved by the governor. Um, many of these related to housing, um, and many of these, uh, necessitate a code change to the unified development ordinance, whether we like it or not. Um, While we were amending some of those sections that are required we are proposing some minor housekeeping amendments in those same sections You know for ease of use and I'll explain what those are as we go As mr. Manager indicated and as I said, it's a lot. It's seven sections Some of the changes are minor but some are more and I'll go into detail with those and So House Bill 1212 requires that any locality in Virginia that has a population of more than 50,000 has to have a single family zoning district with a minimum lot size of no more than 3,000 square feet and a minimum with no greater than thirty feet. So our proposed change is in the RU-12 zoning district where the minimum lot size currently is thirty six thirty so three thousand six hundred and thirty square feet to reduce that to three thousand square feet to be in compliance with the state code and then reduce that frontage, the minimum lot width, to 30 feet from the 50 feet that it currently is. While we're in there, the RU18, which is adjacent to that, we're proposing to reduce the minimum lot width to go from 30 to 40 feet for consistency because that's a more intense district. In addition, while we're in that table, the Village Center zoning district currently doesn't have a minimum lot frontage. So we're proposing a 35 foot frontage and a 45 foot lot width, and then putting some setbacks in there, changing the minimum setback to 10 feet and adding a 20 foot maximum setback while we're in that table. And then just a note underneath that table, there's notes that are underneath some of the tables. Currently, it talks about the density, if it's a fraction to round up. We're amending that, proposing to amend that, that you only round up for density if it's 0.6 and up, which is consistent with how typically that is done. There were a number of changes about manufactured housing that the General Assembly addressed that I'm going to walk through. But before I do that, I want to express what we're talking about and make it clear. So you've probably seen in some areas these pre-1976 HUD, pre-HUD mobile homes. That is not what we're talking about. Those are not covered under this statute. What we're looking at is the post-1976 HUD-compliant manufacturing homes. which are those ones that are on the right-hand side of your screen. We're also not talking about modular housing. Modular housing is typically built either in a factory or offsite and then assembled onsite, and it is built to the statewide building code. Manufactured housing is on a steel chassis and is built to the HUD standard. So that's the difference, is what we're talking about here is the manufactured housing, which is those that are on the right there. So House Bill 655 requires that in all districts where site-built single-family homes are allowed, you must also allow manufactured homes on individual lots. We can have design standards, and I'm gonna walk you through some of the design standards that are being proposed, but we can't have standards that have the effect of excluding manufactured homes that are built to the current federal code standards. So what we are proposing, first of all, is in the table of permitted uses, everywhere that single family detached structures are allowed, that manufactured homes will also be allowed by right. And that will bring that table in compliance with state code. In addition, we're going to be proposing to remove some agricultural District specific standards related to manufactured home because all the standards related to Manufactured homes will be the same as single-family homes and those will all be in one section so in these two sections in 408 and 602 proposing to remove those standards specific to manufactured homes and We are allowing for the director, should an applicant have proposed that they need a waiver for certain things, and I'm gonna go through what that specific thing is in a minute, that there may be a waiver allowed, particularly if they are proposing it for affordable housing or universal design, which is accessibility. We're proposing to add a couple of statements in the purpose statement at the beginning of the design standards, which is contained in Section 31-602, again, to just kind of clarify what we're talking about. This is about having quality homes. It's not about reducing quality, but again, being in conformance with the state code standards, but also having quality homes within our neighborhoods. While we're in that section, we're proposing to amend a small section about mechanical equipment. It's already required to be screened, but just adding a clarification that for single family detached dwellings that they can satisfy that through either fencing or landscaping that is compatible with the primary structure. So in section 602, we're proposing to have uniform single family standards that will apply to all single family dwellings. The first one is about front facade fenestration. So fenestration is windows and doors. So currently there's a standard that talks about that 16% windows and doors on the front facade is recommending. We're proposing to strike that out for recommended and make that be required of all single family housing. The side and rear facade, similarly, currently it's recommended to have an 8% fenestration on those facades. We're recommending, again, to strike out the word recommended and make that be a requirement so that you don't have those blank walls facing the public right of way. This one on open space for condos is not a state code requirement, but it's something that's being done already in practice that for single family detached and attached condominium developments that they're complying with the multifamily open space standards. So again, while we're in this section 602, we're proposing just to add that to clarify that, but it's what is already happening in practice. We're proposing to add that the primary entrance that is visible from the street needs to have a five foot deep covered porch. Again, so you just don't have that blank door on the front facade. Proposing to have the garages be recessed two feet behind the front facade, again, so that the garage is not the primary thing that you're looking at. And also on lots that are less than 50 feet wide, that the garage door can't take up more than 40% of that front elevation, again, so that the house is more prominent than the garage. And lastly, in this particular slide in 602, to add that for units, and again, this is primarily gonna apply to those manufactured homes, but could apply to single family stick built, that if the unit is narrower than 20 feet wide, the long side has to face the street. So we don't see that short end of a manufactured home facing the street, which is not the most attractive side. Also in 602, in accordance with House Bill 655, they'll have to obtain the CO for the structure within five years of manufacture. This will prevent older structures from being just dropped on lots in the middle of established neighborhoods. They have to convert them into real property in terms of taxation and they need to comply with the International Conference of Building Officials for manufactured housing installation. And as I mentioned before, we're adding a waiver that is possible at the director's discretion if they can demonstrate a design conflict, incongruent design with the neighborhood, or hardship to create income-restricted or universal design homes, which again, universal design is that accessibility standard. Uh, so within this section, we're not really proposing any major changes or just relocating this section for readability within the code. Um, and then clarifying, um, for single family housing, that that includes attached single family and subject to the same standards, um, as above. So that is what this changes. It's mostly just moving it to another section of the code for readability. All right, off from housing onto parking, which is related to housing. So in House Bill 888, the state code has indicated that for housing that is residential development that is within a half a mile of a transit station or facility, that the parking gets to be reduced. It also requires that they can request a 20% reduction under certain conditions of the zoning administrator. So what we're proposing is two notes in table 606-2, which is where the parking standards are, parking requirements, that the minimum parking for single family detached or attached or townhouses within a half a mile be reduced to one space per unit, currently it's two, and that for multifamily, similarly, it would be reduced to half a space per unit. Currently, the zoning administrator can approve a 10% maximum reduction in parking, so we're proposing to change that to 20% to be in compliance with that state code provision. And the criteria that are required for the zoning administrator to look at is already in the UDO. This is something that's not required, but we're proposing it as an option. State Senate Bill 26 indicates that localities can require, not required to require, but can require solar canopies to be installed over parking and offer landscaping reductions. We've option opted for an incentive approach as opposed to a mandate Kind of a pilot see how this goes so for parking lots over a hundred spacious spaces they may install a solar canopy and be afforded relief from the parking lot landscaping requirements over a portion of a of the lot provided by the canopy. Obviously you don't want trees near solar panels because that doesn't really work together. Provided that the canopy covers at least 50% of the parking lot. Solar canopies are limited to 15 feet in height and have to comply with any scott setbacks and buffers that are required. Again, we see this as an incentive approach to kind of see trees are actually better, you know, for the environment, carbon sequestration, all that fun stuff. But the state, you know, as you know, is emphasizing solar. And so this is a way to provide shading in parking lots and again, have a little bit of an offset that they won't have to provide as much landscaping, not a requirement of the state code at this time. uh... so in the table of parking uh... it which is six s is thirty one dash six oh six uh... there's a couple of changes that were proposing to make in here while we're in that table again these are not mandates but they kinda make sense uh... right now religious assembly parking requirements are based on the number of seats in the in the religious assembly more more we're seeing that churches don't have thick seats And so we're proposing to change that requirement to be based on the number of square feet in the assembly space rather than the seats so that zoning's not having to go out there and count chairs. So one per 60 square feet minimum and one per 40 square feet maximum. Also within that table, we noticed that for restaurants, these are actually backwards in the table. It says 50 and 65. It should be the other way around. So we're just proposing to correct the ratio because those are just backwards. And as you're aware, we eliminated bars and nightcobs 2024 as a use, but got to remove it from the parking table. So we're just proposing to remove that from the table because it's not a use anymore. All right, off of parking, and I'm going to apologize in advance for this one. Not our fault, but here it is. So in March of 2018, March 18th, 2026, City Council adopted amendments to Section 31-701C to permit battery energy storage systems in the M2 zoning districts as an accessory use to permitted manufacturing uses only. The ordinance amendments specifically excluded battery energy systems in conjunction with any other uses, including solar energy systems. So state saw that and raised this. And in two different bills, in House Bill 891 and Senate Bill 347, they passed and it requires localities effective July 1, so this is already effective on the state level, to deem a battery energy storage project a permitted accessory use in all zoning districts on any parcel of land that is subject to an approved conditional use permit for a solar facility if this battery energy storage project is located within the boundaries of the parcel covered by the conditional use permit and has a rated storage capacity that does not exceed 100% of the nameplate generating capacity of the associated solar facility. You can see the code of Virginia that uh... that is regulating this now so we are proposing an amendment to that section that we just adopted to align with this change in the state code so this is what it would look like this is the language pulled directly from state code amends what we had before takes the words excluding uh... solar energy facilities out and then adds except that a battery energy storage shall be deemed as a permitted accessory use in all zoning districts on any parcel of land subject to an approved conditional use permit for a solar energy facility if the battery energy storage system is located within the boundaries of the parcel covered by the existing conditional use permit and has a rated storage capacity that does not exceed 100% of the nameplate capacity of the associated solar energy facility. But they also have to still comply with all of the codes and regulations, so we didn't lose that part of it. And now on to our favorite subject, solar facilities. They were very active, the General Assembly, on solar this year. So in House Bill 711 and Senate Bill 374, the state still allows localities to require a conditional use permit, but it prevents the lack of a siting agreement as a sole denier factor, which I don't think has been an issue in Suffolk. Requires a decommissioning agreement, which we're already requiring, and requires localities to report to the State Corporation Commission all denials of solar facilities, CUPs, including the reasons for denial. So what does this mean for the regulations in our UDO? Many of the supplemental regulations will still comply with the state code, and the comprehensive plan sets forth a number of policies that support the currently adopted supplemental standards. so we are proposing in the purpose statement at the beginning of section thirty one seven twenty four which is this this section with the supplemental standards for solar uh... to add a statement at the end of that purpose statement saying with respect to solar energy facilities as defined in this section the standards of this section are intended to be consistent with the policies set forth in the comprehensive plan and shall be applied and construed in conformance with sections 15.2-2241.2, 15.2-2288.7, and 15.2-2288.8 of the Code of Virginia as it may be amended from time to time. We're also proposing to add a statement in the section that talks about consistency with the comprehensive plan to state that a solar facility may be deemed substantially in accord with the comprehensive plan if its proposed location, size, and character closely align with the plan's intent and designations as specified in the state code section 15.2.22.32 . We are also proposing slight changes to the setbacks for solar facilities to bring those into compliance with the state code changes. Planning Commission at their July 21st meeting did vote six to one to approve a resolution recommending approval of this ordinance tax amendment. And I will stand by the conclusion of public hearing for any questions. I have my staff here that did all the heavy lifting on tracking all this state legislation and putting it into this available to answer questions as well, should you have any.

Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, please explain the timing system.

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

This is a public hearing with the first speaker. Please come forward and provide their name and address. Is there anyone present who would like to speak to this ordinance? Hearing no additional speakers, this public hearing is now closed. An ordinance has been presented for council's consideration. What is your pleasure? Council Member Williams. Move for approval. And a motion for approval from Councilman Williams. Do we have a second? Questions or comments? Okay, here we go. Council Member Rector. I'll second the motion. Second from Councilman Rector. Do we have any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, I do have a couple comments just There's a whole lot of information to digest at one time. Let me start with the battery storage. So with the approval of this ordinance, when we approve a solar facility, then we're automatically comes with battery storage capability or battery storage allowed with the solar approval.

Yes, sir.

Okay, so that could be. actually counterproductive to trying to get some solar done because when we approve, when we consider a solar facility, then we also have to consider that it's going to come with permitted battery storage.

Yes, as long as it is, and this, I believe, is a change that the governor added once it was on her desk, that it can't exceed 100% of the nameplate capacity, which at least keeps it within a reasonable size compared to the solar facility. So it couldn't go around it by having a smaller solar facility and having a giant battery energy storage facility, because it has to be subordinate to the solar facility.

Well, I think it's important moving forward, of course, I'm I would imagine that the applicants will go into detail as to what the battery storage would be and we will get that information from them. But from our standpoint, I think we also probably need a little bit of A little additional knowledge as it relates strictly to battery storage based on the size of the facility, what it entails, the pros and cons and what have you, so that can be included in our decisions. The manufactured housing, so if I'm reading this right, manufactured housing is going to be allowed in virtually every zoning designation.

Everywhere that single family is permitted. Yes, single family. Yes, there are some districts where single family is permitted.

But everything from A to RU-12, single family. So when we talk about things like infill development, what have you, we've been dealing with probably the polar opposite of what this is going to create because we have – I don't know if it would be on the other side. Basically, our infill development now is bigger houses going in with – being mixed in with the older houses. But with these reduced guidelines, especially on the width size, I mean, 30 feet wide, I mean, that's old school. We're almost back to the 25 it used to be 100 years ago. So that's a skinny house, and you're going to get a lot in there.

And they'll still be required to comply with all the other zoning standards. So just because it's by right doesn't mean that they don't have to comply with the maximum impervious cover, parking, all of those other things. All of those things are still required.

Okay. And the amendment we're making to 31-407, Table 407-1. The Village Center VC lot dimensions, this is not a state requirement. This is one that we are implementing or putting in place because we feel like it's a thing to do. I guess it is kind of bizarre that in the VC zoning designations there weren't any setback requirements so you can be 10 feet off the road. So now we've got 35 feet frontage, 45 foot lot with that combined with the additional... changes we made in VC is going to preclude a lot of this other development that we're getting now.

Yes, that's the hope.

That's been an issue, and I know that was something we were going to talk about, but this will come in handy when we go through our village plans as well. Yes, sir. Like I said, it was a lot. I just pulled out a couple highlights. But other than that, it looks like what we have to do is what we have to do. to align with the state code.

Most of it, yes, sir.

I think it was brought up at a planning commission meeting that, you know, can the state force their will on us? And, you know, basically they can. Bill and roll. If I could have the attorney just weigh in on that, where when these are brought to us and we are... basically required to amend our ordinances to align with state ordinances what the ramifications could be in the event that we don't follow that policy.

So if the city does not adopt the changes in its own code, what you create is an ambiguity. And what that means is then the court will apply the state code if someone challenges a denial. But you may also, let's say, for instance, solar. If we create an ambiguity, it may not just be the setbacks that we lose. We lose the entire set of regulations for solar because all the court's going to apply since we created an ambiguity is exactly word for word what's laid out in the state code. And whatever's missing from the state code doesn't get supplanted. It also creates... confusion for anyone who's applying for anything. Am I supposed to comply with the state code? Am I supposed to comply with the local code? And so it's an unfortunate situation. It would be better if the code said that our code automatically gets amended, that you don't have to actually vote on it, but we still have to follow the process for amending our code.

So if these aren't passed and aren't done, then there are consequences to that? Yes. Both present and possibly future? Yes. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that, that there's not a lot of latitude here. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Council Member Johnson.

I just want one question. I'm confused about the battery storage. If we've approved solar in a rural area of the city, you know, out on Indian Trail Road or out on way far away, Now can they legally go back and put battery storage on those solar facilities even though we don't have way to deal with the complications of the battery storage?

Under the state code, we have to permit them to do accessory solar within a solar facility that has a conditional use permit, as long as it's on that same parcel. But they have to comply with all of the standards, all the safety standards that council adopted back in March about emergency response plan and all of those things. They still have to comply with all of that. When they go to do it, it will require a site plan, so staff would review it and all of that. But the state indicated that we are required to have it be deemed as a permitted accessory use in all zoning districts.

So are we developing better plans for battery storage as far as how we're going to deal with it if there are problems?

WELL, I THINK THAT THE STANDARDS THAT COUNCIL ADOPTED IN MARCH WERE PRETTY EXTENSIVE. WE WORKED WITH THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND LOOKED AT THE STATE CODES AND INTERNATIONAL CODES FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE. THERE'S A LOT OF FAIL SAYS WITHIN Now I know they have kind of a bad, I'm not advocating for them, but I know they kind of have a bad reputation. There's a lot of fail-safes within them, you know, for that. But I think that the code that the city council adopted has some pretty good provisions in it for safety for those facilities.

I'm really concerned. Okay. Thank you. I have one other question. Yes, sir. I think you're going to get another one. Are existing, priorly approved, existing solar facilities, are they able to come back and add that now, or they can? Yes.

If they have room, which most of them probably do.

So this applies not to... only to the ones we've already approved, but it's retroactive to those that are operating now. Yes. And will that require additional permitting, or is that something that will be done administratively, or how would that be handled?

That would be done administratively. They'd require a site plan that would go through our normal site plan review procedures, all the inspections, all the requirements.

So you just ensure that it adheres to our standards, but they won't come before us?

They will not come before City Council. Okay.

Councilmember Bennett.

Yeah. Why are you there? I have a couple of questions on the solar farm. Do we understand you to say that we have to give a reason for denial? So you have to give that to the state to the state corporation commission. So.

SUPPOSEDLY THEY ARE CREATING A FORM FOR COUNCILS TO UTILIZE FOR THEM IS WHAT I UNDERSTAND. YES.

THE OTHER QUESTION I WAS GOING TO ASK YOU, ON THE RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLY, I SEE YOU GOING FROM ONE PER FOUR SEATS. Churches now are not having to go on the chairs where they can put X numbers in there or take X number out. So you're going to per square footage rather than that. So that will help... It should help them.

It should help them so that if they change the number of seats, they're not all of a sudden in violation. Because if the square footage changes, they would have gone through some sort of building permit. But if they just move chairs, they're not now in violation if they add a bunch of more chairs.

Okay, that's what I wanted to find out because I know a lot of them go on two chairs now rather than...

They'll have that flexibility without, you know, risking being in violation.

Okay, thank you. Yes, sir.

Council Member Rector. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. City Attorney, this question is for you. Going back to the offering justification for denial of a conditional use permit, Councilman Johnson may vote no for it for a reason. Councilman Person Butler Barlow may vote no for it for a different reason. I may vote no for the application for an entirely different reason from that. So how are we going to collectively come up with a reason why this council rejected the CUP?

The best practice would be that if a member makes a motion for denial, they put a reason for the denial with the motion. Because under the law, what one person says does not translate to that is the will of the body. So the best practice would be for the motion to include the reason for the denial so that it's clear that the majority of city council is saying this is why we are not allowing this solar facility to go forward.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? If not, I think somewhere along the line we had a motion on the floor for approval. Hearing no other comments, council member is prepared to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

Motion is approved by a vote of seven to zero.

Okay, our next public hearing was an ordinance to amend Section 31-406C, Section 31701B13, and Appendix A, UDO, the City of Suffolk, and that has been moved to staff reports. So we will go to ordinances next, and we do have an ordinance to amend Section 86-202, 291 of the Code of the City of Suffolk, restricting through truck traffic on Manning Road from Copeland Road to Mineral Springs Road and on Arthur Drive from Mineral Springs Road to Whaleyville Boulevard. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Greg Benton, Director of Public Works, will walk you through the proposal.

Mayor, council, city manager. The evaluation of Manning Road was conducted within the framework of Virginia law, which outlines criteria for reviewing requested through traffic through truck restrictions. Existing city ordinance 24-0-090 section 86-291 Provides for restricted truck access on 46 truck restricted routes as shown in the depiction on this slide. This slide outlines the location map showing height restriction locations as well as the truck restricted routes. This is also located on our website. At the request of residents, truck traffic was evaluated along Manning Road between Copeland Road Mineral Springs Road and along Arthur Drive between Mineral Springs Road and Whaleyville Road to determine whether a truck restriction should be considered. The study was performed in March and April of 2026 and sealed by our engineering firm on August 6, 2026. These rural roadways are not designed to carry commercial truck traffic due to narrow pavement widths, deep open roadside ditches, poor geometry, and site distance limitations. The study reviewed crash records. 43 reported crashes occurred along Manning Road within the study limits. One crash resulted in a fatality and 22 crashes resulted in some level of injury. All remaining crashes resulted in property damage only. Five reported crashes occurred on Arthur Drive within the study limits. Only one crash resulted in a possible injury and all four remaining crashes resulted in property damage only. The truck study on Manning Road evaluated data at six locations along the corridor noted on the map. The review assessed roadway conditions, traffic patterns, crash history, and availability of alternate truck routes. The section of roadway averages 870 vehicles per day and 25 trucks per day. For Arthur Drive, The truck study evaluated data at two locations depicted on the map and on the screen. The review assessed roadway conditions, traffic patterns, crash history, and the availability of alternate truck routes as well. Arthur Drive is a two-lane undivided rural roadway with an approximate width of 18 to 19 feet and a posted speed limit of 35 miles an hour. We just completed some ditch maintenance on one side of the road and by the end of this month we will have the other side completed on Arthur Drive. This is a picture of a recent truck traffic incident as of this year on Manning Road. Here's some additional pictures showing roadway and ditch damage due to large truck roadway departure. And our objective is to keep truck traffic on primary arterial roadways and off rural roadways. Manning Road and Arthur Drive are not suitable for heavy truck traffic. Heavy truck volumes have increased on these roadways, along with a number of truck-related incidences. A reasonable and preferred alternate route exists via Route 13, Whaleyville Boulevard, as well as Copeland. recommendation amends section 86-291 of the city code to add Manning Road from Copeland Road to Mineral Springs Road and to add Arthur Drive from Mineral Springs Road to Whaleyville Boulevard. This concludes my brief. If there are any questions. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Manning. Council, questions, comments, or a motion? Council Member Montgomery.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Benton, we, Council received an email prior to tonight's meeting with just a couple, I mean, with very positive remarks about what we're trying to do here on Manning Road and limiting the truck traffic. But one of the things that was brought up that the no trucks signs are in English and maybe a lot of the truck drivers don't read or speak English.

Okay.

So is there a, like a truck, just a picture of a truck with a red line through it, is that a possibility? Sure, we'll look into that. They brought that up as a comment, and it seemed pretty legitimate that if you're a person that can't read a sign, then maybe you need a picture sign, and that seems like a silly thing, but maybe it's not a silly thing. Just to make it abundantly clear that we don't want trucks going through there, that was one of the suggestions. There was also, again, many positive remarks in the email that we received. And I think the source was some of the photographs that were in your presentation. Are we sure that we're not going to redirect traffic so that it ends up coming from Mineral Springs into Whaleyville, which is an awkward intersection for a large truck to make a turn? So how do we communicate the desired truck routes to the folks that are using them?

One, we will be able to reach out to certain companies that do have a large number of trucks, so we'll be able to do that communication. There's still the one-offs. Also, the truck drivers themselves, they may experience a situation where it's hard to make a right-hand turn or a tight turn or whatnot, and that would preclude them from also going down that route. But the other part is also just going to be, if this is approved, we put those truck restrictions in, and then we see where they go and what the change may need to take place after that. Regarding your first comment about the truck sign, if this is approved, the yellow signs will actually be changed to the truck restricted signs, and that actually has a depiction of the truck with the red circle and hatch mark going through it.

Great, great. That sounds good. So we put... Providing we vote for this, we put this into place, and then we monitor if it's working or not and make further changes if we need to. Right.

The desire is, you know, because Manning is on here to come off, it would be 58 to Loomis and then Loomis to Copeland is a route that has a straighter road than what's being currently used. Great.

Okay. Thank you.

Council Member Butler-Barlow, if I can mention, initially, the other thing that we can do once, assuming it gets put in place, is we have a relationship with the Port of Virginia, and so we can communicate to them about the changes. Additionally, we've interacted previously with a number of trucking associations to let them know. So there are some outreach efforts that we can do, assuming this passes.

Council Member Johnson.

Greg, is there any way we can contact GPS or let these people know that these rights have changed and the trucks are not? Is there any way to do that legally?

Well, it also depends.

It's a tough one, but it seems like the GPS is probably not our friend, and that's what a lot of these truckers are going by.

Well, if a trucker is using your Waze or whatever we all use to transit around, it's not going to have them. Stop it. it's not gonna give them the truck route to go off of. I don't know the name or anything, but I do know that there is a trucking app out there that will actually allow trucks to transit via approved truck routes.

Well, I think the citizens are gonna be most receptive to this, and it's a beginning, so I'm sure we'll have to do more as we proceed forward, but I'd like to make a motion to approve, please.

Okay, we got a motion for approval from Council Member Johnson. Do we have a second? Council Member Williams. We got a second from Council Member Williams. Any more discussion in the motion? I'm hearing none before I vote. I'm glad this finally got here. I know we've been talking about Manning Road in particular for a while, and we've done our homework and we're there, so it's just a matter of trying to change some behavior. We'll look to our guy over here on the right and make sure we can wake some people up, get the word out that they need to stay off of those two roads. So with that being said, we've got a motion for approval. 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.

Okay, we have no resolutions. Before we move to staff reports, we're going to take a 10-minute recess. Let everybody stretch their legs, and we'll be back for our village plan review and also our ordinance amendment. We'll see you back in 10.

Amen.

Council is now back in session. We do not have any resolutions. We do have several staff reports. Our first one will be regarding our village plans. Mr. Manager, please provide the overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, we are ready to kick off the much anticipated village plans. So walking you through the plan for the plans is Jonathan McBride, our Comprehensive Plan Manager.

Thank you, Mr. Hughes. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. I'm excited to present my first item before Council here, since I've been with the City of Suffolk, and that's the work towards our historic, updates to our historic village plans. So your comprehensive plan, Suffolk 2045, identifies this as one of the key objectives, is going back and updating our village area plans In particular, we want to preserve, protect, and promote our villages, preserving the character, promoting the new investment opportunities, and protecting those great assets that exist within those villages. And so we're looking to really, at the end of this, create cohesive, community-driven visions for our villages for the years to come. Now, our village plans, as you know, as I mentioned in previous updates, those old plans were first adopted about 25 years ago in the early 2000s. And so part of this is an update, but it's also establishing a new vision for what the villages will be. And so in the last several months, we've been working to procure a couple planning support agencies. So we've procured Benchmark Planning out of Charlotte, to help us with our village plan updates. They're gonna be with us for the next three years, and I'll talk about the schedule in a minute, but you'll probably recognize them. They helped us with our downtown master plan in 2018, and so they're coming back to help us develop our village plans. We've also procured Design Workshop out of Colorado, and they are a team that's gonna help us establish some market studies. So we're not just going in and getting ideas and putting visions together. We're actually gonna base that in some content and some data and some perspective around what the market potential is. They're going to be running scenarios for us as well, looking at what a conservative growth scenario is and a progressive growth scenario over time. And then what is our market? What's our primary market, which may be those that live within close proximity to our villages? And what's our secondary market? What are those that may be driving in, visiting, and taking advantage of our villages for their scenery and the other assets that they may have around them? And so they're going to be analyzing that data and then sharing that with us and our partners at Benchmark to be able to develop the plans, again, with some factual data background. This work, we're dividing into two pieces, again, with two consultants. So I'll be taking the lead on the village plans, and our senior planner, Gonzalo Borges, will be taking the lead with the market studies. Just a little bit on the process, so you have an idea of how we're going through the process with these plans. We are in what I call phase zero. This is the beginning. This is before anybody knows what's going on, that we're actually planning. We're getting ready to plan. And so a lot of what this planning process is, and one is getting the staff ready, knowing who the people are, who the right staff are to be able to be involved in the process. And so we did a kickoff last month where we took staff around. We did some site visits with the consultants, took them around to all of the villages within the day, had some conversations with staff to at least orient to the process and understand what we're doing. And the other big portion of this phase zero is really identifying stakeholders. So as we go into any village, I want to know the community. I want to know the people that are there, who are the key people that know people, that know their community, know how their community operates. So a lot of the work I'm doing right now is identifying who those key stakeholders are, reaching out to several and saying, who do you know that's important to know? and identifying those organizations that are doing good work in the community. And that's going to help set the stage for the rest of the process. Part of this process is also asking them what's the best way to engage your community. They know their community the best. And so we're in that first phase zero. The next phase that we're going to be starting here in the next month is going to be looking at the visioning of the community. What does it look like? What did it look like then? And what does it look like now? What's changed? We'll start getting some community input, which I'll describe in a moment. And then the second phase will be looking at taking that data, both from the community, both from the market studies, and applying it. So we'll be looking at different, again, different scenarios. If traffic is an important issue out there that they want to address, what are the different scenarios around that that we may be able to address that? If it's young people and offerings for resources around young people, then we'll look at those scenarios around that and then get public feedback through that process. And then the last phase is drafting the plan and getting feedback around the plan. At the end of this process, our hope is it's not just a city plan, but it is a village plan. So it's owned by the village. They have interests. They understand where we're going. We have some common purpose that we're working towards as a city, but it really is a collective village plan. We are also intending to move through this process where we are starting with one village in phase one. And as we get into phase two with that village, we're going to be starting with another village in phase one. So we have an overlapping process So we're not taking six years to get through the village planning. We're actually trying to do that in three to four years instead. So with that in mind, I'd share with you the schedule that we're looking at to go through that process. So we've committed now to Chukotuck and Oakland as our first one. We'll be working with them. We've actually started working with them and getting to know some of the folks out there. We'll be working with them, really kicking this off in the next month to do some listing sessions and so forth. But we're looking to have Driver be our second one. So coming in January of next year, about that time, right after the holidays, we'll start engaging with Driver as we're getting into that phase two with Chukotuck. We say proposed plan because, as we know, there's several things that may happen over the years. When we get into the year three or four, we may want to move these around based on funding opportunities, economy, environment, things that may happen. And so we leave that flexibility open, as you all see fit, to be able to move that if we need to further on and so right now we know we've got several large projects that you funded in the CIP they're in the planning phase and we want to make sure that we've aligned our village planning with those projects so you have some large projects in Chukotuck, Driver and Holland and so these will hopefully be able to inform those processes as I mentioned earlier the market studies those that work is happening now that'll be wrapped up in December so as we get that market back we'll market study data back we'll be incorporating it into the process We are also including, I didn't mention that earlier, that we're also including downtown with those market studies so we have that as a benchmark that we can be analyzing and also be applying with our downtown efforts. An example of what the previous studies were, I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into Chukotuck since that's the first area we're going to be looking at. This is from the 2001 plan that was adopted in September 2001. It has a series of initiatives that are described. There's some maps that lay out those initiatives within the village where those gateway improvements, streetscaping improvements would likely be important. And it also included a long-range vision for build-out. Now, a lot of things have changed over time, and a lot of the interest in those areas may or may not have taken it. I wasn't in that planning process, so I can't speak to all of the decisions made, but may or may not have taken into the infrastructure that was involved there. And so a lot of the conversations we're going to be having is, what is realistic for this? What does the community really want to see? What is the infrastructure that's in place? What's changed here? And as far as facilities and other opportunities, I'll give an example. When this was built, planned out, we didn't have Longacre Park in the scope. And now we do. And so as we get into Chukotuck, having those conversations about how do these new assets play into the plan are going to be important. And with that said, we're going to be looking at villages from different angles, different perspectives. So we're going to be looking at them from the, as we typically would, from what's out there now, but we're also going to be looking at what's the land use, what's the zoning in place, what are the assets, what are the other resources that are there, both natural and built out. And so we'll be taking as many facets as we can look at this issue, the issues within the community, we're going to be looking at them. And with that also includes what are the current plans that are going on? What's the current projects that are underway? What's the long-range plans that may exist that we want to make sure we incorporate? And so you know several of those, particularly around parks with Lone Star Lakes and Longacre Park. There's plans around intersection improvements that we know that are in the works, studies around that. There's also interstate trail systems that are planned to go down Highway 10. And so how do we incorporate that into our village plan? as well as water, sewer, stormwater projects, and the Crumps Mill Dam project all play into how do we make sure that we're all moving in the same direction. I was at Chukotuck's Civic League meeting on Monday, and one of the questions came, well, do I have to wait a year before we can get our stormwater fixed? Well, that's not the plan. The idea is that those projects will still move forward, but as we get into the planning process, we're hoping aligning those to move in the same direction. So as we're doing stormwater, we're also addressing water and sewer projects We're addressing the trail improvements that we may have in long range and setting ourselves up for success in the future. And to take that out a little bit broader than just Chuckatuck, but thinking through the other efforts that we have underway that will tie back into the village plans. As you've seen tonight, we have several ordinance updates that we're in the process of. A lot of this is coming out of the comp plan that was adopted and said here's some ordinances that need to be updated over time. And so we're going through modernizing a lot of our UDO, addressing, as you already adopted, arts and culture earlier this year for downtown and arts and culture district uses. We're doing some cleanups. We're also looking at housing and what's the right housing mix and how do we improve the quality of the housing that's being developed, as well as agritourism. That's on our list as well. We'll be working with our ag committee in several months to be looking at agritourism and making sure that our uses align similar like we did for arts and culture. And so all of that we want to make sure we take within a lens of the villages as you did tonight, talking about the frontage within the village center. That is part of that process. Downtown and agriculture advisory committee, we're working with both of those advisory committees to look at strategies and next steps for those, how those groups can help in that work related to the comp plan, as well as economic development authority and their agritourism how that all ties back into the villages. So it's not that this work all is village work, but it all should have a lens of how does this impact and support the villages and the agriculture area that we have and not just the areas within the growth area. And so our next steps, as I mentioned earlier, we're bringing key stakeholders together and staff and identifying organizations that are out there. We're working towards some engagement kickoff, which will be some listening sessions. These will be small group focus groups with different... like groups, as I would call them, so community groups, nonprofit organizations, business groups, to get their perspective of their community as we get going in Chukotuck and Oakland, and then that'll lead to a survey that we will put out to the broader public, and we'll start to expand our engagement from there. I will mention that SuffolkVillagePlans.com is under construction right now. It is existing. You'll be able to track the progress of each of the villages, so Benchmark is hosting that for us, so you can get real direct information of where we're at in the process for each village. Um, any surveys and questions will go up through there as well. So we have one place for people to go to find information on our village process. So I'm here if you have any questions.

Okay. Thank you. Council questions or comments. Council member Butler.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I'm so excited that we're starting this process. There was, when we approved the comprehensive plan, you know, there's a lot of things in there, and, you know, do we approve it and lay it aside, or do we continue to use it as a living document and do the things that we say we want to do? So I'm So excited that we're starting this project to work with our historic villages. And I, you know, sorry everybody, but I'm really excited to be first. So I'm glad to know that it's going to be overlapping and that we're going to roll phase one and, you know, so everyone will be included. But I'll say Jonathan and I have crossed paths. Almost every day this week, sometimes more than once. I think we're going to see each other twice tomorrow. So I'm here to say he's actively, you know, trying to get folded into the community in the Chuck Tuck Oakland area and doing a good job with that. And I just, I'm excited about the process. I feel good about what you've laid out here tonight and look forward to working with you on getting this stuff done. So thanks. Yay.

Council, anybody else? Questions or comments? If not, I'm just going to reinforce what Council Member Butler-Barlow just said. When we approved the comp plan, we knew that the village plans would have to be addressed separately. We did it in a general sense, but each one of our villages... is somewhat unique in their own character. They're all villages, but they all have their own identity, and addressing it the way we're doing it is exactly what we should be doing, and basically we're delivering on what we talked about. We didn't just talk about it and how we're doing it, and also along with that, You know, there's these other comp plan efforts that we're looking at in regards to downtown master plan, economic development, agriculture advisor, everything you just talked about, parks and rec, workers, and affordable housing. So the comp plan is a living document, and it's going to change, and we're doing exactly what we need to do. I'm excited, maybe not as excited as you are, but I'm semi-excited that we're moving forward with this. So thank you very much for your presentation. We look forward to working with you in the future. We've got a long way to go. Okay, we'll move to our next staff report, which was item number 21, which was carried over from our ordinances. It's an ordinance to amend Section 31-406C, 31-701B13, and Appendix A of the Unified Development Ordinance of the City of Suffolk, Virginia. It's OTA 2026-5. And this was originally continued from the June 17th 26th Council Meeting. Mr. Manager, we'll provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council, Jonathan McBride is going to come back and walk us through this presentation.

Good evening again. I'm privileged to bring before you an updated staff report for OTA 2026-005. Our effort here is to try to address some of the questions that came up at the last council meeting in June around accessory dwelling units and be able to give you some guidance moving forward. So we talk about accessory dwelling units. Our comprehensive plan talks about housing and looking at ways to improve housing supply within the city of Suffolk. One of the ways that we've been looking at as staff is accessory dwelling units create opportunity for incremental housing supply to increase. So it's not a way to increase housing rapidly, but incrementally. And so when we talk about accessory dwelling units, we began this work earlier this year as an internal staff group identifying accessory dwelling units as an ordinance that we already had, that we had opportunities to improve upon to expand housing opportunities. So what is an accessory dwelling unit? Here is a consolidated definition that we have. Previously we had two separate definitions, one for attached and detached. We have proposed a consolidated definition here. where basically an accessory dwelling unit is subordinate to the primary dwelling unit. So it has to be smaller in size and in scale than a primary dwelling unit, but it has to have a separate independent living, sleeping, sanitation, and cooking facility. And it can be internal, attached, or detached. So really, who do ADUs serve? They serve, really, when you think about the life cycle of a family or life cycle of a household, they really serve throughout that life cycle. When you think about, we've been looking at workforce housing for some time now, the average age of a first-time home buyer is now in their 40s. So what that means is for younger folks, the opportunity for them to buy a house or find housing becomes much more harder. So you have younger adults living at home with their family members. And so accessory dwelling units have been looked at for many years as an opportunity to create some level of independence, an opportunity for that young person to still be at home or on the same property but not living in the same house. And so similarly on an independent side, that also creates opportunity for seniors. When a family member needs to move back home, move in with an adult child to be cared for, accessory dwelling units provide that. We've also heard in conversations in the last several months is that there's some seniors that want to move into the accessory dwelling unit so that their adult children can move and grandchildren can move into the primary dwelling unit. It gives them a chance for a new home in that sense, to build a smaller downsized house that fits their needs while allowing their family to remain near to provide support when they need it. And so we see it really serves an entire life cycle of a family. And in my previous work in another locality, we saw that this was an important tool for attracting new teachers into our community, new public servants who may be relocating here and providing housing in established neighborhoods before they establish themselves here for the long run. So ADUs really do serve a variety of needs within the community. I'm going to give you some updated information as we go forward, but I did remind you that our history of ADUs, it's been around since the UDO was adopted. And since 1999, we've had just 54 ADUs, both by CUP and by right that have been approved within the city of Suffolk. And just for context, that's about a fifth of a percent of of your total single family unit. So very few ADUs have been approved in Suffolk over that time. And just to look at your standards, I did want to be clear that there's some standards we're not changing. These three main standards are staying the same. So when you think of the size of an ADU, it has to be less than the principal structure by 50%, and it's capped at 1,000 square feet. So if I have a 3,000 square foot home, I cannot build a 1,500 square foot ADU. It has to be no more than 1,000 square foot. If I have a 1,000 square foot home, I cannot build something more than 500 square feet. And so there is a limit to the size of the ADU based on the principal dwelling. It also has to be connected to the central water and sewer and septic, and it can only be limited to one ADU per lot. I did add additional information from the conversation we had previously. The state did make some changes this year to how accessory dwelling units are regulated, and I pulled out some of those examples here of ways that we are able to regulate. These are ways the state allows us to regulate some of those things. So leasing of 30 days or longer, so we're allowed to prevent short-term rentals, ADUs from being used as short-term rentals, as well as some of the general things that we're going to talk about later, like floor area coverage, lot coverage, building codes, historic districts, And also around separation, so we can limit it up to 500 feet from the primary dwelling unit. And we can limit the number of ADUs that can be on a lot to no more than one. I will also add here that the state code in this section did also give a caveat to localities that you don't have to change your ordinance if you already have an ordinance adopted. However, we feel that from staff there's an opportunity here to make some good improvements to our ordinance. So we could keep our ordinance in perpetuity, but at some point we're going to need to make a change to our ordinance. And so we feel like if we can do this in wholesale, then that brings the opportunity forward. The additional requirement is that localities shall not require, so they limit our ability to require some things. We can't make an ADU setback harder than other setbacks for the primary dwelling unit. We can't make it more restrictive in some way. We also can't require public street improvements for an ADU, and we can't require that an ADU be lived in by a family member alone. We can't require any affinity between the occupants. And there is a big caveat. This was a question at the last meeting. I want to make sure to bring this word. The state code also has this clarifying factor that we cannot be more restrictive or we can't supersede the agreements between individuals or private entities. So that means for HOAs, condo associations, covenants, private property associations, that they are able to create restrictions that are greater than the cities and ours don't supersede that. So if you kind of view it in the way that we create some base regulation and they can create regulation on top of that. So they can limit whether you can have an ADU or not. They can limit whether it's only attached or detached. They can limit many other factors than we are able to limit as a city. Another factor that we considered as we were looking at this ordinance early on this year was that in 2024, state code changed to limit our ability to prohibit renting of rental dwelling units. So we are supposed to be treating rental as ownership in the same way, at least for those that are rented 30 days or longer. So short-term rentals can still be regulated independently, but for those long-term renters, we should be treating them the same. And they also have that same caveat in here for condo associations and HOAs because many condo associations do limit how many rental properties can be available for rent in that condo association at one time, whereas a locality cannot do that. And so as I get into the changes, I'll go through these real quickly. I've added in here just a connection back to the state code so you can see where we were in alignment. As we were drafting these, the state code, state legislative session was happening. And so we were watching that and the changes they were recommending to make sure that we were aligning with what was coming out of the state legislature. And so the first one being that we made a small change here to focus on lot coverage rather than density. When we look at density, we're looking at subdivisions. and multiple properties, whereas this is regulating single lot activities, so we're really looking at setbacks and lot coverage. The next one is looking, instead of trying to measure it based on the number of people that are residing in there, we're measuring by something we can measure at the permit process, so that would be the bedrooms rather than the people, so we're limiting that to no more than two bedrooms and an accessory dwelling unit. This one we discussed with the Ag Committee when we were thinking through this process, but instead of HAVING OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU MAY HAVE A PRIMARY UNIT IN AN AGRICULTURE AREA AND ACCESSORY UNIT THAT IS HALF A MILE AWAY, LIMITING THAT SO THAT THE ACCESSORY UNIT REALLY DOES LOOK SECONDARY TO THE PRIMARY UNIT. SO THERE'S A MAXIMUM LIMIT AS THE STATE ALLOWS. THE STATE ALLOWS 500 FEET. WE'RE A LITTLE MORE CONSERVATIVE AND DID 400 FEET. SO KEEPING THOSE IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO EACH OTHER. ANOTHER ONE THAT WE HAD THAT WE'RE REMOVING THE STANDARD IS THE Having the zoning administrator reviewed a visit and inspect these each year for compliance We already have property maintenance inspections So we did not feel that that was something that the zoning administrator should continue to inspect at this time And it's a it's an additional burden an additional or enforcement Requirement that didn't seem necessary And when we talk about detached units, we want to be careful that someone doesn't think that they can take a shed and all of a sudden that lets someone live in a shed. They need to bring that up to state code when it comes to housing, to building code. And so requiring that a detached accessory unit must obtain a certificate of occupancy, make sure that that unit is to livable standards. When we think about detached units, we also want to be careful that they have access to public right of way, both from their own access as well as to public safety access to that accessory unit. So we don't want to have someone living behind a locked gate that only the primary owner has access to. They need to have access to that, have a clear means of egress. Another change, as I mentioned earlier, is around rental. And so currently accessory dwelling units cannot be rented. But again, in the case of adult family members or other, Other needs and based on what the state code said in 2024 We're recommending that it not be rented for a period of less than 30 days again to avoid short-term rental usage of those accessory dwelling units And then lastly when we get into parking research and experience around ad use has shown that because of their typically being especially what we've seen in the use in Suffolk of those 54 those are typically being requested related to family members or family needs and And so they're not typically increasing the demand on parking. So what we've changed here is instead of adding additional parking because that increases the cost of an ADU, really looking to make sure that that primary dwelling unit has enough parking that's required by code. I'll show you some examples in a second of where we've got older homes that are built so they don't only have one off-street parking space. So if they only have one off-street parking space, they'd be required to add an additional parking space to bring it up to code. Lastly, here is the changes as we have the use table. This is in compliance with the state code as we're going similar to manufactured homes. They are requiring that ADUs be available by right in all single family zoning districts. Let me give you a couple quick examples because I feel like it helps set the context for where ADUs can and cannot go and some of the factors that are going to go in to make it challenging based on our current standards as they are. Three of the main factors, or four main factors that we have is the size of the primary dwelling unit, the parking, as I mentioned, the impervious surface ratio, which is how much of the lot they can cover with impervious surface, and then the setbacks of that lot. That's all gonna be based on the zoning for that lot. So I'm gonna give you a couple examples of RM, and that's our residential median density zoning. So this is an example, these are real lots within our downtown area, older built out area of a 50 foot by 200 foot lot. The primary dwelling unit is 1,650 feet and so the impervious cover of that ratio opportunity is 0.16. So they have the largest ADU that they can build is an 825 square foot detached ADU. And that blue area in the back there you can see is the potential area that they could build that on. That detached ADU is really limited by the primary dwelling unit size. That's 50% of the primary dwelling unit. However, for them to be able to do that, they only have one off-street parking space. So we'd have to add an additional off-street parking space in order to qualify for an ADU. Secondly, another example around the corner is a shallower lot. It's a 150-foot lot. By 65-foot lot, it has a larger primary dwelling unit of 2,400 feet, which means it has a smaller impervious surface ratio. And so for them, the largest ADU that they could build would be 97 square feet. Unfortunately, based on basic building code and room sizes that are required, the smallest ADU would be around 210 to 250 square foot, depending on how it was structured. And so they would not be able to build an ADU based on, even though they have the off street parking and the primary dwelling unit size. And I would add that unless they were converting an existing garage or existing space within their primary unit. So here's another lot around the corner, a 50 foot by 200 foot lot. It has two parking spaces. It has plenty of impervious, sorry, impervious area. And so the largest ADU that they could build based on the primary dwelling unit would be a 900 square foot ADU in that rear. And then another neighborhood nearby, another RM district. So that's a 45 foot by 150 foot lot that has two parking spaces, has a smaller impervious ratio because of the size of the lot and the size of the primary unit. And so that's the thing that would limit an ADU there of 625 feet. So just to give you where we got here and where we're going, so we briefed Downtown Advisory Committee, the Ag Committee, and the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority in April prior to bringing this forward to you, prior to the Planning Commission in April. I'm sorry, the Committee on Ordinances in April, and then the Planning Commission in May. ALL OF THOSE GROUPS HAVE GIVEN THEIR SUPPORTS EITHER GENERALLY OR BY VOTE AND ARE RECOMMENDING THAT WE BRING FORWARD THESE ADU CHANGES GOING FORWARD. AND SO STAFF REQUESTS THAT WE HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING FOR OTA 2026-005 AT THE SEPTEMBER 16TH COUNCIL MEETING. AND I'LL STAND BY FOR QUESTIONS.

OKAY. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? Council Member Richter.

Thank you. Jonathan, I have one quick question for you. Detached accessory dwelling units must obtain a certificate of occupancy. Is that the only class of accessory dwelling unit that needs one?

So an internal or an attached would already have a certificate of occupancy because it would go with the primary dwelling unit. So a detached would need to have its own certificate of occupancy.

But if I was converting a garage to house my mother-in-law, for instance, would what I am working on or, or remodeling, I would need a certificate of occupancy for that. Wouldn't I?

Well, because it's, you already have a certificate of occupancy for the structure itself, for the home that's built. So if the garage is attached to the home, um, they're still going to have to get building permits and plumbing permits and go through all of that. Uh, but the certificate stays with the home itself. So because it's an independent structure.

I was just concerned about whether or not what would be done would be adequate for living quarters.

That's where the building permit would review that to make sure it would be adequate to satisfy the sanitary cooking and living space.

Thank you. Council Member Bennett.

I have a question on some of these accessible dwellings. As I ride over the city, I see a lot of sheds. I call them sheds where you buy them at these... places where they sell them. I see quite a few of these now are being, look like, I can't say because I'm not there inspecting them, but look like they are using those as accessible dwellings as well.

Is that allowed? If they haven't got a CUP in those areas under our current ordinance, they would not be allowed and that would be a zoning violation that could be reported to zoning. There are some that predate our UDO, so I know of several that have been in existence for quite a while, as long as they'd be non-conforming in that case. So I do think that if that's an issue, then they would need to be reported to our zoning compliance. But the idea is that we'd be able to bring more of those into compliance by right.

Okay, because just like I said, I see, I don't fit in one FC, but I see a lot of them as I ride around, not just one area, a lot of areas in the back that have looked like... People are sort of living there.

And I would share, I think part of the intention on staff is to create a process so that if it's by right, we actually have, it's a permit process rather than a legislative process to have to review those. So the hope is that we would bring more folks into compliance because all they would need to do is go get that certificate of occupancy and get their permits in place.

Is there a permit required for that?

Yes, they're going to have to go through the whole building permit process to make sure that they're in compliance with inspections. Supposed to. Supposed to. Okay.

Okay, council, any other questions or comments? If not, I've got a comment and probably a question from our city attorney. I know when we initially considered this, you know, we tabled it to simply because it This was not mandated until July 1, 2027, to give us a little bit more time to address what we may have to do or what we don't have to do. And it's based on my understanding that there is a, within the code that was passed, the 15.2-2292.3, one of the statements, the last thing in the code that was passed says nothing in this section shall apply to a locality that adopted an ADU ordinance prior to January 1, 2026 if such ordinance does not deem an attached or detached ADU to be a special use. So I don't know if this is concrete or be construed as possibly allowing us to maintain the current ordinance that we have, which we just amended, I think within the last, I'll lose track of the time, it's only been maybe a year, a year and a half since we amended our own ADU ordinance, might have been longer than that, where we added additional zoning designations that could be approved administratively. That's why we haven't heard any come before us in a while and i think it went from the uh agriculture to rr re maybe rm and down another those could be approved administratively and we also laxed up some of the requirements and others could come before us so you know from my standpoint if we can If we are able to satisfy the code with the existing ordinances we have, I think we passed a very, very good ordinance that allowed for more ADUs to be allowed without opening up the floodgates and having them end up in areas that maybe we regret that they were there. So I'm going to ask the city attorney where we are as far as the ordinance we have. Is this something we can do and wait to see what comes down? Just need a little advice here.

So as staff pointed out in their presentation, it is not mandatory that we make any changes to our code. However, what you have before you is a recommendation from city staff and a recommendation from the planning commission to amend the UDO. So City Council will need to take action on that request from the Planning Commission.

So that's keeping in mind that when the Planning Commission and the staff looked at it, we were assuming a state mandate where we had to make some type of changes.

I believe, and I don't want to put words in their mouth, but I believe staff said that they think that this is a good idea regardless of whether it's mandated or not.

Yeah, I can just speak to it. Our work began in January before the legislative session began, and so our draft that we're bringing before you really represents those changes. We did watch the legislation that was happening to make sure that we aligned with what the state was going to require.

Right, but now we don't necessarily have to do that alignment, and I think based on the discussions I've had that if we're comfortable with what we have at this particular juncture... That would be recommended that we don't amend anything because the amendment itself could kind of open up a can of worms to where, well, you did that, you should have done it all.

So I would just clarify, staff is bringing forward a recommendation regardless of the state change. We're just considering the state change in this, and we recommend that we do change. the ordinances to create more housing opportunities. So that was in the staff report that went to the Planning Commission. So we went to the Planning Commission with that understanding that there is an opportunity here. How you want to deal with the state changes. Again, we try to keep in line with the state and those opportunities. It's not urgent to do it today, but we do think it's worth moving forward in the near future.

Okay, so we were, I guess we can't take, We have to take some type of action because it went to planning. So if we were to, in essence, table this thing or not deal with it now, whatever you want to call it, what would the proper process be?

So you can either postpone it to a date certain or you do have the option to, you know, it's not really an option because you need to take some type of action because you've got a, Recommendation because I was going to say your other option is to just tape use the proper motion for tabling Which is you place it on the table and it doesn't get put back on the body until the somebody makes a motion to bring it back I don't believe that that's valid with a planning item because the code Envisions City Council making some type of decision on a planning item so you could set it to another date and And you did, at your June meeting, ask for a second public hearing so the body would have to decide if they want to continue with that line as you had approved before or if you're just going to put it for action at a meeting in the future.

Okay, I'm still confused, but that's... Doesn't surprise me at all.

So you need to set a date for when you're going to make a decision? Just any date. So since this is not a comprehensive plan amendment, there's not a time limit on city council to act? So we could set a date.

I mean, I don't think we need to consider it now. If we don't have to change it, we've got a great ordinance, in my opinion. So we have to set a date for the public hearing. We've got to have a public hearing one way or the other.

You've had your one public hearing that you're required by code. The second public hearing would be the choice of counsel. You did indicate to the public at your previous meeting that you were going to have a second public hearing.

That we could set. So if we have to have another public hearing, it's just a matter of what the date's going to be. So if we set it for September, then we just have the public hearing, and if we decide not to do it, then we just don't do it, right? Turn it down, but we have to have the public hearing. Or would we be better served to table it since this... I mean, the code, even if it turns out we do have to do something with the code, is July 1st of 27, so we could set the... public hearing for April or May, what would be your recommendation? It's up to the body how they want to handle this. I need you to come up with that. Sound like the Planning Commission. I'll let them figure it out. I don't have any discussion. Anybody got any thoughts? We can have the public hearing next month, and if we decide not to take any action, then we just turn it down and not take any action. If I understand it right, and just kind of get it over with, or we can table it, wait to see what else develops. And then just if we don't want to make any changes, we let it go. Okay. All right, we got a motion on the floor to proceed with a public hearing on September, what was it, 16th? 15th. 15th. Do we have a second? Council Member Bennett?

I second.

16th, on the 16th, and a second from Council Member Bennett. Any discussion in the motion? Hearing none, Council Members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

I'm going to do a roll call real quick. Council Member Bennett? Yes. Council Member Butler-Barlow? Yes. Council Member Johnson? Yes. Council Member Rector? Yes. Council Member Williams? Yes. Vice Mayor Ward? Yes. Mayor Duman?

Yes.

Motion is approved by a vote of 7-0.

We do have several motions, and I believe these are a result of items that were brought up under new business at our last meeting. Our first motion is to provide a staff report on September 2, 2026, City Council meeting that evaluates the feasibility and structure of a farming and agritourism resiliency and marketing grant program as proposed by the Agricultural Advisory Committee. And a motion would be in order. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Move to approve.

And a motion for approval. Council Member Barlow. Council Member Johnson, will you second this one? Just guessing. Second from Council Member Johnson. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, council members prepare to vote. We'll try it again, Erica. Please cast your vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 7-0.

Okay, we now have a motion to provide a staff report on the... Wait a minute. I'm in the wrong place here. Nope. I have a motion to have the Planning Commission review and recommend amendments to Section 31-506 of the Uniform 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. And a motion would be in order. Vice Mayor Ward. Move to approve. Got a motion for approval from Vice Mayor Ward. Council Member Butler-Barlow. Second. Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. Any discussion in 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 seven to zero.

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

Yes, Mayor Duman, we do have one non-agenda speaker this evening. Each person participating under the item of business entitled non-agenda speakers shall limit their remarks to the services, policies, and affairs of city government and shall be permitted five minutes for the purpose of presenting their matter. SPEAKERS APPEARING BEFORE CITY COUNCIL WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES TO CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE, ENGAGE IN PERSONAL ATTACKS, PROMOTE PRIVATE BUSINESS VENTURES, OR USE PROFANITY. SPEAKERS WHO VIOLATE THESE RULES WILL BE DECLARED OUT OF ORDER BY THE PRESIDING OFFICER AND WILL IMMEDIATELY YIELD THE FLOOR AND BE SEATED. DOUGLAS CARTER, 1230 KANSAS STREET, REPRESENTING SUFFOLK PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS, LOCAL 2801, REGARDING FIRE DEPARTMENT STAFFING.

Douglas Carter, 1230 Kansas Street. Good evening, members of council. I'm here on behalf of Suffolk Professional Firefighters Local 2801, representing the men and women who staff this city's fire and EMS response every day. Suffolk Fire and Rescue is an ISO Class II accredited career department serving more than 106,000 residents, a standard only a fraction of departments nationwide ever reach. This city has built its identity around standards like that, a AAA bond rating, an ISO Class II fire department. a reputation as a well-run growing city. The people wearing the city's uniform earned every bit of that standing. Tonight, I'm here about a gap this council has known about for 14 months and has not closed. 14 months ago, your own fire and rescue senior leadership answered a question the city has avoided for 30 years, not just 20 like the dog kennel. For 30 years. The documented operational need based on decades of call volume coverage data is 109 firefighters per shift. This department requested 17 additional positions, or 51 total, to get there. That request has been sitting in front of you all since last June. I have a copy here if you would like to read it. This isn't a matter of opinion. The National Standard for Career Fire Department's NFPA 1710 requires four personnel on every engine and ladder company. Federal research from NIST shows a four-person crew completes fire ground tasks 25% faster and gets water on the fire faster. This also allows us to work underneath OSHA's two-in-two-out rule for aggressive firemanship. This is not a target to aspire to. It is the floor, and the city currently builds underneath it. Today, eight of Suffolk's 11 engine companies run below that four-person floor. That's above the 51 requested needs, by the way. This department already proves every single day it knows how to staff to the standard, as every ladder and rescue company running at full strength. So the real question isn't whether Suffolk can meet the national standard. It's why the council has allowed eight engines to continue running under it, budget cycle after budget cycle, while the study explaining exactly what it would cost to fix has been sitting on file for over a year. I want to be precise about where the responsibility for this sits. It does not sit with the firefighters and medics covering these below standard gaps on overtime, night after night, It does not sit with fire administration that documented this problem honestly and handed you a costed plan to fix it. It sits with the council who have had this plan since last summer and have had no motion to fund it. We will be back here at every meeting between now and November to provide detailed specific data surrounding all the various ways your people have sacrificed and earned better staffing, pay, and benefits. This is not new information that you're hearing tonight and it won't be new information the next time we stand in front of the microphone either. Local 2801 has spent the last few months collecting information to ensure our data is accurate, precise, and all-encompassing. We came before you last December and our concerns were not heard. Now we have a year's worth of data that has been ignored and we're here to prove we were correct. While we had hoped to work through collaboration and open communication, we feel our only recourse is to shed light on these issues publicly. We're asking you to stop treating your own department's staffing study as a suggestion and start treating it as what it is, an obligation the city has already been informed of in writing by the people who run its fire department. The 17-person gap doesn't close itself. Only a budget vote does that. To the 19 people working overtime today at Station 11, Station 10, Station 7, Station 8, Station 6, and Station 5, we see the hard work that's being put in and the demand and the burden that's being placed upon your shoulders. We will continue showing up to shed light Thank you for your time tonight, and thank you for listening.

That concludes the speakers, Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do we have any new business this evening?

No, Mayor Duman.

Do we have any new business that any member of council would like to bring up? Hearing none, we'll move to announcements and comments, and I'll ask if Media and Community Relations has any announcements.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of City Council, Mr. City Manager. I'll start tonight's announcements with a series of recent ribbon cuttings and celebrations across our community. On July 30th, Suffolk Public Schools and the City of Suffolk came together to celebrate the grand opening of the new John F. Kennedy Middle School. School and city leaders joined students, family, staff, and alumni for the official ribbon cutting, followed by tours of the new facility. The celebration marked the completion of a major milestone investment in the future of Suffolk students. The original John F. Kennedy School was built in 1965 as a high school before becoming John F. Kennedy Middle School in 1990. The replacement project began in 2023 and the new school is ready to welcome students this school year. Continuing the proud tradition of the mighty Wolverines for a new generation to come. The ribbon cuttings didn't stop there. Suffolk Economic Development recently joined the fabric shop and embroidery and print house to celebrate the grand reopening at their new larger location on Bridge Road. Offering everything from fabrics and sewing supplies to custom embroidery, personalized items and gifts. Their new space provides additional room to grow while continuing to serve their customers. Economic Development also joined Three Rivers Decor to celebrate its new business in Suffolk located at Governor's Point Drive. Three Rivers Decor adds another locally owned shopping option to the Suffolk community. And rounding out our ribbon cuttings, the city joined the Coalition Against Poverty in Suffolk, better known as CAPS, to celebrate the grand opening of its newest facility at 129 North Saratoga Street. CAPS is a network of local churches and organizations working together to alleviate poverty and support community development throughout the city of Suffolk. By sharing resources, information, and support, the organization helps strengthen efforts to serve individuals, families in need, and build a stronger community. Congratulations to all these organizations and businesses as they continue to grow, invest, and make a difference in our community. From celebrating growth in our community to recognizing excellence within the city government, the City of Suffolk Treasurer's Office has once again earned statewide recognition. The office has been reaccredited by the Treasurer's Association of Virginia for the 2025-26 accreditation period. This accreditation recognizes treasurer's offices that meet high professional standards in financial accountability, customer service, ethics, staff development, and treasury management. The accreditation process also requires a successful, independent audit with no findings of material weakness. Congratulations to Treasurer Andrew Owen and the Suffolk Treasurer's Office staff for their continued commitment to professionalism, accountability, and service to our residents. Next, we have several updates from Suffolk Public Works as well as public utilities. The Nazman Parkway Bridge over Beaman's Mill Pond is reopening to traffic. The project replaced a bridge originally constructed in the 1920s with a new, wider structure designed to meet current roadway standards. and improve safety and accessibility. The new bridge is separate from the existing dam and also includes pedestrian access, providing an important long-term improvement for the Nassman Parkway corridor. The bridge is set to reopen on August 21st. In downtown Suffolk, residents and motorists are reminded of the ongoing closure at the intersection of Commerce Street and Bank Street. A contractor working on behalf of the city's Department of Public Utilities is performing construction in that area. The intersection is located right behind the Miles E. Godwin Courts building, and will remain closed to traffic throughout August 31st. Detours are in place and nearby public parking lots will remain open throughout the construction. Motorists are encouraged to follow posted detour signs, allow extra time travel, and use caution around the work zone. Paving work has begun along Portsmouth Boulevard as part of an ongoing HRSD pump station replacement project. From Tuesday, August 18th through Thursday, August 20th, crews are scheduled to pave Portsmouth Boulevard between Suburban Drive and Wilroy Road. Motors should expect traffic impacts while work is underway and encouraged to follow posted traffic detours. And finally, railway crossing upgrades continue at several locations across Suffolk. Crews have been making steady progress as work moves from one crossing to the next. Improvements at Surrealtor Sail Road, Nazma Parkway, and Progress Road are now complete, with work of Old Mill Creek Drive and Suburban Drive expected to be completed on August 21st. Motors should note that this work may overlap to keep the project on schedule. All railway crossings upgrades are expected to be completed by August 22nd with weather permitting. And now from roadways and railways to one of Suffolk's favorite traditions, the Suffolk Peanut Festival. The 48th annual Suffolk Peanut Festival returns October 8th through the 11th. bringing four days of family fun and celebrating Suffolk's proud agricultural heritage and fun. Residents are encouraged to mark their calendars and get ready for another great year of food, entertainment, rides, activities, and of course, plenty of peanuts. For more information, visit SuffolkPeanutFest.com. On Saturday, August 22nd, Suffolk Parks and Rec will be at the Holland Ballfields for Saturday Cinema, featuring the SpongeBob movie, Search for SquarePants. The fun begins at 6.30 with family-friendly activities followed by the movie at 8.30. Gather the family, find a spot on the lawn, and get ready for a fun-filled evening to watch SpongeBob with your friends. For more information, contact Suffolk Parks and Rec at 757-514-7250. Next, we're taking a great look back at the community connection across Suffolk. On August 6th, neighborhoods throughout the city came together for National Night Out. Residents, families, first responders, city leaders, and community partners gathered for an evening of food, fun, fellowship, and wild relationships that helped keep the community safe. Let's take a look at some of the highlights from this year's National Night Out.

National night out! Thank you.

Again, thank you to every neighborhood that participated and to everyone who helped make this year's National Night Out a huge success. And finally, on your screen, you'll see the different ways residents can stay informed about the city's events. Thank you, and have a wonderful night.

Thank you. We now move to announcements from council, and we're going to start with Council Member Butler-Barlow. Hold on one second here. Bam.

Thank you, Mayor. It's been a long time since we met. I think our last meeting was July 15th. It's the longest break I can remember. But I want to assure everybody that we've all been busy in the meantime. The highlights from communications indicated all the different things. And we've all seen each other at a lot of different events. And so many, too many things to list. But I did want to mention National Night Out was great fun. It was fun to see everybody out and about. anticipating what the great numbers are going to be because we certainly saw a lot of our citizens out. I also wanted to mention another really great gathering with lots of folks. The Nansman Indian Nation Pow Wow was Saturday and Sunday and it was PLENTY HOT, BUT WELL ATTENDED AND REALLY WONDERFUL REGIONAL EVENT AS WELL. I GOT TO MEET A REPRESENTATIVE FROM A TRIBE IN UTAH THAT WAS ONE OF THE VISITING FOLKS AT THE POWELL, WHICH WAS PRETTY IMPRESSIVE FOR SOMEBODY TO COME THAT LONG AWAY. AND AGAIN, MANY, MANY OTHER GREAT EVENTS THAT WE'RE ALL ENJOYING AS WE CLOSE OUT OUR SUMMER. I'm so excited about the, I didn't mean to gush at all, but the whole village initiative that we are kicking off and I'm excited about the process and excited about the results that we may achieve with this. I think it's, as we all said, this is what we said we were going to do and now we're going to do it and I'm glad that we have a plan in place. So I'm anticipating getting that kicked off and looking forward to having really great successes and great results from that. What else? I want to mark an occasion just because it's part of the historical record. Yesterday, August the 18th, in 1920, women were first granted the right to vote in the United States. That's not that long ago. My grandmother was born into a United States that both of my grandmothers, where they were not allowed to vote. So a significant milestone and a red letter date and something that we just need to remember and appreciate that it took a lot to get us there. We all know we're always looking to make things better for our citizens and always trying to make changes that have positive impacts, and that was certainly a major one back in 1920. So just wanted to recognize that. Otherwise, good to see everybody. Good meeting, lots of good discussion. It's late, so that's all I have to say. Thanks, and see you guys next time.

Council Member Bennett.

Hey, I want to start out by saying there's been a lot taking place the last couple of months. And I want to start out really by saying traffic in the northern part of the city has been really bad. But I think with the crossings being repaired that needed really repaired and people had complained about them. So in order to get them fixed, you had to close the road in order to get that done. So I really would like to say that I have traveled those that have been repaired, the one on Shields Hill Road and also the one on Progress Road. And the material that they are using now I think is much better than any that I've seen put. And I think that will last a long time with the trucks and all across there at the park. I think everybody is very pleased with having that open back up. And the other big thing is National Parkway Bridge. And that has been closed, I think, about 18 months. And we are so excited that that is going to be open, I think, Friday. And maybe we should do a ribbon cutting with that. It's been such a long time. And right there, maybe we need to look at doing a ribbon cutting like we did on the flowers. So anyway, that's a great opening there for school getting ready to open. And I'd like to thank everyone that played a part in getting that done. And also that we look at the new John F. Kennedy School, which is just open. And I know people are talking about cameras, but people need to know now the school is getting ready to open. The camera will be operating again in the school zone, so I think people need to be aware of that. With the flashing lights, that means that the cameras are working. So I'm hoping that people will pay attention to that and not be writing us with complaints about getting tickets for going through the cameras. We also decap a new office opening. I think that was a great turnout for that, and it was very supportive of what is taking place here with trying to help people that's in need. Also, I would like to ask that we look at Nassman River High School with the drop-off for the kids. I've been getting some contact with some of the parents about the concerns with dropping kids off with the parking there. And I know we have already funded that. I'm hoping that I'm requesting that we can move that up if any way possible. try to have that finished by October when school really gets started and see if we can't do work with the schools to try and get that open by October if possible. I'm putting that request in that we will look at trying to fast track that and try to get that done with that. Also, I want to thank the firefighters for coming up and giving a presentation about some of their concerns and needs and I think that's something that we need to take a look at and Make sure that we are trying to make sure we get service whatever we need to keep our Public safety people with the needs of people and materials of whatever they need to keep our city safe and with that I I think that's enough for tonight, and I'll save some for next time.

Council Member Johnson.

And I'll be very brief. I just want to give a real thank you to the police, fire, rescue, and all the other people that participated in the National Night Out in the southern end of the city. Believe it or not, we have a southern end of the city, and we had the best National Night Out we've ever had at Lakeland High School, Heron's Point, Lowell Hill Church. These people... Really had a great time. And it's the biggest crowd I've seen since I've been doing National Night Out. But I would like to thank the city participants. They make it what it is, and we really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the trucks off of Manning Bridge Road. That was something we've been pushing and pushing, and it's time. And Arthur Drive as well. And for the other roads that are in the rural part of the city. It's so important to all of us. If you've got nothing to do Saturday night, fung. sponge bob square pants is going to be in holland at the ball field so come out to holland it'll be a fun these guys always have a good time um and with that i'll say good night council member rector um i also want to congratulate the city on a great national night out um it's always fun to go to the different localities and see the different events that have

going on and and once again if there's an award given for the best fish fry i think the folks over there at the social services um with it if nothing else they have my vote for it and i can't wait to see where we rank this year with the other cities in our size category hopefully it'll be an improvement from the number seven but we just have to wait and see I want to thank Clint Rudy for helping me host. We had two Civic League meetings within the last week. Last week we had the West End Civic League, and then this week we had the Kingsborough Civic League. And we met at the library, and Clint gave them an overview, a little slide presentation of the library itself, and then took everybody around for a detailed tour of the new facility. And I think everybody who had not been in the library before certainly came away very impressed with what the city has done. So I want to thank Clint for that. And then Kevin, I'll give you a little bit of shout out for helping arrange to have some SPSA folks come to the Kingsborough Civic League meeting. As we all know, there's a lot of angst and concern about the change in our recycling uh... procedures so it was nice to have the folks from sepsis there to explain exactly what we were doing and why we were doing it uh... attended what one of my favorite events is the senior citizens police academy graduation uh... it's really exciting to see the senior citizens that have been that have gone through the program that are now acquainted with the procedures and whatnot that uh... the police get involved in and they get sent back out into the community to provide accurate information about what the police are doing to keep us safe in our community. So Chief, congratulations on that program and I hope you keep it up. I just want to briefly talk about the CAPS opening. CAPS is a great organization within our city, almost purely volunteer run. There are a lot of organizations that have dipped their toe into the water of addressing homeless and poverty in our city over the years, but CAPS You know, CAPS dove in head first into the deep end of the pool, and they've been very successful in what they're doing. They're great organizers in getting the church community together to have the shelter in place program during the winter. And I think a lot of what CAPS did provided the inspiration, I feel, for the city opening our own homeless shelter out there at the old hotel at Elephant's Fork. So congratulations to CAPS, and I wish you continued success. This coming up, not this Saturday, but the next Saturday, we at our church will be giving a farewell dinner. We're calling it a kick Keith to the curb dinner. But our priest who has been with us for 19 years is retiring. And to give you it. a little bit of a perspective of his tenure with us. Our parish was founded in 1642, and in those 350-plus years, he's the second longest-serving tenured priest that we've had. Of course, the longest-serving one was Jim Newsom, who I think many of us remember. So it either means we're a very difficult congregation and priests don't stay around, excuse me, stepping stone for priests to go to another opportunity. And excuse me. Um, Keith and I are approximately the same age. He was born in the first part of October and I was born in the first part of September of 1959. So we had very similar experiences growing up. We had very similar experiences going to college. Um, And whatnot. So over the 19 years that he has been with us, I never thought I would say this, but as a priest, he has literally been one of the closest friends I've ever had in my life. And as all of us up here on this dais know, this can sometimes not be an easy job. And his door has always been open to me. to sit down and talk about some of the issues that are facing me personally as a councilman and then, you know, also personally as just simply a human being. And while he hasn't always told me what I wanted to hear, a lot of times you have to tell people what they need to hear. But I'm going to genuinely miss his friendship and I'm going to genuinely miss his counsel. And I know that our church is going to miss him as a pastor of us. And then finally, I just want to touch on something real quick. We're getting ready to enter the silly season, and we're going to have a lot of barbs and whatnot thrown against this council. And a lot of it is fair, but it's all subjective. We're leading the council down the road to hell. We're doing this, we're doing that, we're doing the other thing. But, you know, just like you said one time, Mr. Mayor, you know, when you were, I believe it was when the Port 460 thing was coming up, a lady told you that you're just plain stupid. You know, those kind of barbs against this body I can tolerate because they're all subjective. When you put on the front page of a website that we're tired of being lied to, I have to take exception to that because I don't believe anybody on this body is a liar, and I don't believe collectively as a body we have ever lied to the citizens of Suffolk. To go back to the root definition of the word lie, it's to say something that is not true on purpose. We may every now and then get our facts wrong, we may every now and then uh estimate something that is going to cost x number of dollars and four or five years later we find out that the price is going to be a little bit different but none of that is done intentionally none of that is done with the um with an effort to deceive the public i think every one of us up here acts in as honest and genuine a manner as we possibly can and um You know, to me that crosses a little bit of a line. It's like, you know, Mr. Mayor, they can say what they want to about you, but when they tell you that you're being dishonest, that's where you draw the line. And so that's where I draw the line a little bit. This body is not lying to the citizens of Suffolk. And I just wanted to say that. And with that, I will say good night.

Council Member Williams. Thank you, Mayor. It's been a long night, so I will be very brief. Kevin, I'd like to thank you for coming out last night to the Hollywood Jericho Civic League. Your presence made a difference, and thank you for coming out. Special thanks to Mr. Greg Benton, Public Works Director, and his team for installing that Rosemount Cemetery sign and also that no dumping sign at the cemetery. And thank you for cleaning out the ditch on Rosemount Avenue. I really appreciate that. For the sake of time, my word for the month of August 2026 is redundant. No longer needed, extra, or wordy because it repeats something already said. And with that, I say good night. Vice Mayor Ward, let me get you turned on.

Here we go. Well, yes, I'm always excited with National Night Out. This year I did something different. Normally I go to Burge Grant, Harborview, and Huntersville. This year I just did a little different. I did go to Huntersville late, and I'm glad they – responded in a short period of time. So I thank them. I want to do something different because I never had the opportunity to ride with the mayor. So I hooked up with the mayor for about a couple of spots and made sure that we was together and all that. And I left my family, told them to meet me at Kings Fork. And unfortunately, as you know, that A lot of events I normally attend, but I can't attend them because I take care of my brother, which is named Ivan. He's in the audience now. I didn't know it was this long. I would have never brought him for this long, but he's been a trooper. And I asked him, did he want to go? He said, no, he wanted to stay. So I keep him during the summertime, three months, and then at Christmastime. He has cerebral palsy, but we treat him just like he's just as ordinary as anybody else. So I thank him for coming here and sitting this out. And like I said, normally I go to these events. I had a proud moment. And I know my mayor is itching, twitching over there, but anyway, I wanted to say this here. I had a proud moment. I didn't have, I don't have, I didn't have the best 12 or 14 years sitting on city council. I had some times and some issues I go through and I got a lot of naysayers and I do things a little different than most. But this moment came to me and I'm going to, I don't boast on myself. I just do the job. I don't boast, pat myself on the back. That's not me. But Lord God, we are doing it in his time. In 2014, Johnny Edwards and Lew Ward wrote a book, most of y'all might have it, named Drawn Out, Sworn In, a story about a local redistricting and a peanut city miracle. And the miracle was me, that I won city council. We have a lot, didn't think I could win, but I didn't look at it like that way. I got a phone call, and this phone call said to me, do you know that the League of Women Voters in Pasadena, California, pick your book, be one of the top book redistributions? in the nation, I didn't say Virginia, I didn't say the region, I said in the nation, your book, Lew Ward, Johnny Edwards. As we know as elected officials, we're just gonna be with this country for the next five or 10 years. But all the things that I have went through, that was a pleasure for me to see that, because all of what I had done and all that went against me to be known in the United States that I got one of the top books about redistricting. That was a blessing to me, and it took a lot of things that went against me. It don't matter no more. So like I said, I had to talk about that, because that was a proud moment, just that somebody called and told me that I didn't look for it. They called and told me, did you know that? So all the work I have done is not in vain. So some of the things I do is done right. So what I'll say with that, God bless.

Okay, I'll be brief. There has been a lot that's gone on in the last almost five weeks. It's probably as long as we've been without a meeting. But one thing about it, the city doesn't stop doing their work every day. And we've always got something going on. The 18th, I want to mention that we had the Sunfire Equestrian Center. We've been cutting off Whaleyville Boulevard. And it's been a long time since I've been on a horse. Yeah, you saw that picture, didn't you? I actually started riding when I was five, but it's like being on a bicycle. You know, you don't forget how to swim. You don't forget how to ride a bike, and it's amazing. I got up on the horse. They go, leave me around. I said, you got to leave me around. I can't handle it. So I walked about. We rode from about here to the back of the wall, and I got off the horse and couldn't walk for three days. But it's all good. The Picklepalooza downtown, I missed it, but I understand it was a heck of a crowd there. I had the opportunity to do an Amazon tour. I think, Council Member Rector, you were there too. Just an update on the first time I've been in Amazon in a while. Councilman Johnson, you were there. 12.46 acres of conveyor belts. I mean, I'm sorry, miles. 12.46 miles of conveyor belts. Wrap your arms around that one. Here's another one. Five and a half floors. The building's 3.8 million square feet. It's 67 football fields in a building. 67 football fields. It'll blow your mind. But anyhow, the numbers are mind-boggling as far as how they've contributed to the economy and the jobs. And they've been working with schools. We need to get them involved a little bit more with the Suffolk schools. to kind of get the logistics and warehousing business out. There's jobs, you know, a lot of them are 25 to 30 bucks an hour now plus benefits. So it's not bad at all coming out of the chute. They get insurance, six weeks worth of paid leave. And it's the same way with some of the other warehousing and logistics we got going on. Oh, where am I? City, on the 30th of July, we had the City Service Awards luncheon. at the Lone Star Steakhouse, again, great tradition that was started several years back, recognize employees in five-year increments as far as their longevity. We had something at, what, 45 years or something crazy? 40, 45, 50. 41. 41. You know, we've got a lot of folks with some longevity out there, but I'm in the fire department. JFK ribbon-cutting, I mean, the building's off the chain. I mean, it's... Largest project we've ever undertaken, 74 million plus. Great building to be serving citizens of Suffolk, our students, for decades to come. Three Rivers Decor had a ribbon cutting. Kelly Overton, right across from Vintage Tavern. ymca had their community champions luncheon where they got to recognize the board of volunteer volunteer staff and also recognized the city for our partnership with the ymca what they do for our citizens and the assistance we give them everybody's kind of mentioned national night out it gets better every year i mean it was great the weather wasn't bad it was a little sticky but not bad um i had a dead battery unfortunately we had um Suffolk PD was on the spot, had some chargers, and made my way home. Turned out the battery was bad, by the way. That's what the issue was. I want to thank Suffolk Parks and Rec. You know, I think they go overlooked lots of times in National Night Out because they don't really have a presence in National Night Out, but they are very busy taking all the resources they have and trying to allocate them for each one of their communities, whether they want tables and chairs and tents or lights or generators. I mean, they are coordinating that effort and taking limited resources to try to, you know, distribute them equitably to everybody. They do a great job. And, of course, you know, fire and rescue, PD, volunteers, and last but not least, our citizens is what makes it work. The next day I went to the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center in Portsmouth, in P-Town, kind of old stomping grounds. and we were in the second floor in a conference room sitting at a table with about 10 people, one of which was a vice admiral, which was a three-star, and then a rear admiral, a couple captains thrown in. There was a lot of brass in there, but it was a rather, and both of them females, by the way, and the vice admiral, there's only three vice admirals in the Coast Guard, like in the whole Coast Guard, and one of them's right there, so we talked about you know, their mission and how they interact with the localities. Mayor Glover was there. Mayor Dyer was there. Brought back some old memories because I could look out the window and there's a white building on the corner right across the street. That's where I went to get my draft card a couple years ago. So I was able to pick that up. But I learned a lot there. Bennett's Creek had a volunteer appreciation picnic. East Suffolk High School had a reunion several years there. A lot of folks I knew, a lot of people knowledge in the room, a lot of history in the room. CAPS, we talked about their ribbon cutting and what they do. Suffolk PD, we talked about the Senior Citizens Academy graduation. And then just three days later, they had an open house right across the street. So, you know, we've got the police department reaching out for some citizen engagement, you know, two pretty good events through several days in a row. And that's about it for what was going on. I am not going to do a quote of the night for my first time in about 14, 15 years because I'm going to, instead of spending a little bit of time with that, I'm going to talk about an editorial that was in the Suffolk News-Herald on August 5th. This will fall right in line with what Councilman Rector talked about. And you probably didn't know this, but August, we should have done a proclamation. August is National Civility Month. Did you know that, William? National Civility Month. We got lots of months, didn't know it existed. It's coming out of the paper. I'm not gonna read the whole article. I'm just gonna pull a couple parts out of it. It says August is National Civility Month, an observance built around kindness, empathy, and respect. Those ideas may sound simple, but they are badly needed in the places where many of us now conduct our public conversations, Facebook pages, neighborhood groups, and news comment sections. We should be able to agree without treating the person on the other side as an enemy. That does not mean people must avoid discussing difficult subjects. It does not mean residents should stop criticizing elected officials, questioning public spending, or challenging decisions that affect their neighborhoods. Strong opinions are part of a healthy community. Personal attacks are not. There's a difference between saying an argument is wrong and saying the person making it is stupid. There is a difference between questioning a public official's decision and attacking that person's family, appearance, or character. And then I'll skip down to the very bottom. It says, civility is not weakness. It takes more discipline to answer an argument thoughtfully than to toss out an insult. National Civility Month will not transform social media in 31 days, but it can remind us that every comment is a choice. Before pressing post, ask one question. And that question is, would I say this to the person's face? Would I say this to the person's face? And I have had comments on there. I mean, I'll talk to anybody anytime about anything. And I've invited them to either pick up the phone and call me or come see me and talk to me. And I'd be glad to explain what my position was and why. And I've been doing that for 15-plus years. I had two people take me up on it. In 15 years. So once again, just remember that one thing. Great article came right out of Suffolk News there on, you know, would you say the same thing to someone's face? So with that, sorry to keep you here late. Lou asked me when we'd be out of here. I told him 830. I didn't miss it by much. And my wife is probably texting me and wants to know if I'm in a ditch or not or hit a deer on the way home. So whatever you said at this time, I'd like to ask for a motion for adjournment. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

So moved.

Moved for motion and adjournment. Can I get a second? Council Member Williams? Second. Second from Council Member Williams. Without any further ado, please prepare to vote. Council Members, please vote. Madam Clerk, kindly record the vote.

The motion is approved by vote of seven to zero.

This meeting stands adjourned.