City Council will consider a proposal to request a charter change from state lawmakers to raise the number of votes needed to approve intense land-use applications south of Indian River Road, a stopping point for water and sewer services known as the Blue Line.
Allowing large projects or extending water and sewer services could open the floodgates to residential and other development in the rural area, where farming remains an active industry. It hasn't happened because of anticipated costs and opposition.
Brent McKenzie, the city’s legislative affairs director, presented the idea to council on Tuesday as part of a draft legislative agenda. The proposal would mean nine votes on the 11-member council, more than the six that theoretically could approve the kind of project that might lead to an extension of services now.
The Blue Line is different from Virginia Beach’s better-known Green Line, a longstanding anti-sprawl boundary between the suburban northern city and more rural southern areas. The Blue Line is further south and it’s what the city calls a “hard stop” for the extension of water and sewer service that could fuel significant growth.
Some development is permitted below the Green Line, though it is constrained and becomes less dense as it transitions between the Green Line and the Blue Line. Recent projects and proposals, including discussions of extending an industrial park below the Green Line, have raised concerns that the integrity of the Green Line is threatened.
On Tuesday, councilmember Barbara Henley, a farmer whose district includes the rural area, said she would oppose the charter change.
She said it would be “misleading” given development pressures already felt below the Green Line. The policy of preventing expanded services has held, she said, “but this gives a path” to extend services.
Councilmember Michael Berlucchi countered that the proposal would make it more difficult to get the necessary number of votes to approve intense projects.
“If a council member in the future wanted to extend those services below the Blue Line, it would require six votes, a regular majority, not a super majority, correct?” he said. “So the path already exists.”
“All you’ve got to do is get the same people who voted to break the Green Line to break the Blue Line," Henley said, "and the Blue Line is gone.”
The request for the charter change was included in the draft legislative agenda by Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson and sponsored by Mayor Bobby Dyer.
The public works department established the Blue Line in 2004. The city is including it in an ongoing update of its comprehensive land-use plan for the first time.
“Recognizing the Blue Line will help ensure a predictable gradient between the city’s urbanized areas and its protected natural, rural and agricultural areas,” the legislative agenda draft says.