The City Council on Tuesday adopted its annual legislative package, a list of priorities and funding requests to pursue in Richmond.
This year’s agenda includes seeking the authority to better enforce limits on short-term rental operators who don’t comply with rules. Virginia Beach supports increased resources to fight flooding and build schools. The city also wants an exemption for a plan to restore habitat in Back Bay that stalled over concerns that it could harm existing vegetation.
Two other items received plenty of attention this year:
One is the growing concern about the safety of e-bikes and it is in the adopted agenda as a policy statement saying the city is concerned about safety and education about the technology.
Another is a possible charter change to make it harder for the council to make major land-use decisions that could threaten agricultural production in the city's rural areas.
That’s on hold, for now. The council did not vote on this Tuesday because the city staff is reconsidering language to ensure it doesn’t conflict with the Agricultural Reserve Program, the city’s longstanding farmland preservation effort. The council may consider it on Nov. 18.
“The concept will remain the same,” Brent McKenzie, the city’s legislative affairs director, said during a meeting earlier this month. “We just need to firm up the language to make sure there’s no unintended consequences on programs like the ARP.”
The city needs state approval to amend its charter and this would apply to intense land-use applications generally south of a stopping point for city water and sewer called the Blue Line, generally south of Indian River Road.
The proposal would mean it would take nine votes on the 11-member council, rather than a simple majority of six votes, for matters such as significant rezonings.
The Blue Line is below the Green Line, a longtime anti-sprawl boundary between the suburban northern city and more rural southern areas.
Councilmember Barbara Henley, a farmer who represents the rural area, is hesitant to embrace the proposed charter change about the Blue Line because she worries it could open a path to greater development in the southern city.
Henley has sometimes been in the minority on votes affecting the district she represents. On Tuesday, she opposed a conditional use permit for a bulk storage yard in a corporate park south of the city’s Green Line, but it passed, 10-1.
“I think to say this is going to protect the Blue Line is misleading,” Henley said of the possible charter change after Tuesday’s meeting. “We just saw the Green Line abolished by a supermajority. I just couldn’t get a second to a motion to deny a very large industrial development below the Green Line.”
However, others have supported a charter change, including the Virginia Beach Farm Bureau board.
John Cromwell, the board president, recently said that raising the number of votes required for major changes from a majority of six to nine would offer greater protection. The board sent a letter of support, which was read during a recent public hearing.
The legislative agenda adopted Tuesday includes a policy priority statement that “supports efforts to promote micromobility options while also improving safety and user education related to e-bikes.” The city has been grappling with safety concerns about e-bikes at the resort and in neighborhoods, and the brief mention followed weeks of discussions about how much to seek through the legislative agenda process.
City representatives are expected to engage the legislature on the topic while keeping the council informed about legislative options. The city is developing a task force and the council on Tuesday also updated language in an ordinance about the bikes to better match state language defining them.
Safety concerns include to riders and the public, including young bike users who may not wear safety gear or be able to handle the speed and power of the machines.
“We need to put some real parameters around these things,” City Councilmember Stacy Cummings said earlier this month.
“We have to have enforcement,” Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson said. “People are not going to change their habits unless we give them a reason to change them.”
Members of the council have also said they want to ensure people who enjoy the technology are included in discussions. Additionally, the council also wants better data about incidents involving the bikes.
The general statement on e-bikes was included in the agenda because there was no specific request for legislation yet. City Manager Patrick Duhaney told the council earlier this month that the work of a city task force might not have recommendations completed in time to seek specific legislation in the upcoming General Assembly session.
“It does allow us a little bit of flexibility to address some things that may come up,” Duhaney said.
