The Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday amended its citywide land-use plan to accommodate a leading employer, which had faced a potential threat to its financing.
A council majority voted to remove a 21-acre parcel slated for an economic development expansion at Innovation Park from the master transportation plan, which is part of its comprehensive plan, because of a right-of-way reservation that runs through the land.
The move sidesteps a complication faced by Acoustical Sheetmetal Co., a manufacturer whose planned $45.8 million expansion has been supported in part by state and local incentives. The project was celebrated in June by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and it is supposed to bring 350 new jobs as part of the company’s third expansion in Virginia Beach.
The bank financing the project balked at the reservation on the property, although it’s uncertain a road could go through the site, city officials have said during meetings over the past week. The parcel is in a commercial park run by the city’s development authority.
Some officials have questioned the speed of the change, which was fast-tracked because it needed to be resolved this month, and the decision to modify a citywide plan for one property. But other officials said the change was necessary for an important economic development project.
A right-of-way had been reserved in plans for the Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt, though that road is not expected to be built. However, part of the right-of-way might have been used for a future two-lane road and an 11-foot-wide, shared-use path.
The path would now go around the property, officials said last week.
On Tuesday, Mayor Bobby Dyer noted the parkway is not a project that will be realized, and the business faces a deadline to move forward.
“This is not being pro-developer,” Dyer said. “This is being pro-business. It’s being pro-employment.”
City Manager Patrick Duhaney told council on Tuesday that the bank financing the project raised the issue this summer, but the company could not work around it and brought it to the city’s attention within the past few weeks.
“This is unorthodox in terms of the pace that we’re doing this,” Duhaney said, adding the city wished it had known about the issue earlier.
The request went before the city planning commission last week, which recommended approval in a divided vote.
City Councilmember Barbara Henley, who represents the district containing the project area, cast the lone vote against it. In an interview, she said she couldn’t remember such a decision about a major plan being made “so quickly and without public discussion.”
In October, the council may also consider a request by the business for a conditional use permit to operate a bulk storage yard on the property.
A city staff report stated that removing the parcel from the plan will give public works and economic development officials time to study alternative routes around the property.
During a planning commission meeting last week, economic development staff described the change as necessary for a project that will result in a 250,000-square-foot building in the corporate park.
“The reason this item is before you today is because the company's financial institution has stated that the reservation be cleared before they are able to move forward, which enables jobs in the city of Virginia Beach and investment,” said Natalie Guilmeus, deputy director of economic development for the city, on Sept. 10.
Planning Commissioner Walter Camp, who opposed the change during last week’s commission meeting, noted they were asked to alter the city’s comprehensive plan while that land-use policy is in the process of being revised.
“This is strictly for the benefit of a single applicant,” Camp said.
Last week, Planning Commission Vice Chairperson John Coston was among those who supported a recommendation that the City Council adopt the change.
He said sometimes organizations “have to make a quick pivot.”