BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE COURTHOUSE — The Virginia Beach Agriculture Advisory Commission on Friday, April 13, voted to recommend that the City Council maintain the agricultural reserve program while supplying some money for a project to address flooding in Ashville Park… Continue Reading
Dear Editor: My opponent in the Princess Anne District, City Councilmember Barbara Henley, helped create and voted for the agriculture reserve program, or ARP, in 1995. Many years later in 2013, as a sitting member of the Virginia Beach City… Continue Reading
That ending the agricultural reserve program was proposed at all — then argued with questionable logic — shows a troubling division between Virginia Beach government and the rural communities it takes for granted. THE INDEPENDENT NEWS PUNGO — Two years ago, following his appointment as… Continue Reading
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE VIRGINIA BEACH – Councilmember Barbara Henley, a farmer who first joined the Virginia Beach City Council four decades ago and an advocate for land preservation and limiting rural development, says she is running again this year to… Continue Reading
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE COURTHOUSE – Improving the capacity of and drainage from the two lakes at Sherwood Lakes, a subdivision near Pungo that experienced flooding following storms this past year, may cost about $4 million, a sum that is far… Continue Reading
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE COURTHOUSE — The city staff has recommended an approach toward addressing flooding problems in the Ashville Park neighborhood near Pungo that would begin to correct problems in the drainage system there and lead to continued development of… Continue Reading
THE INDEPENDENT NEWS COURTHOUSE — The transition area is a section of the city below the “green line” between urban and suburban development and the southern rural areas of the city, according to the city’s comprehensive plan. It is, in… Continue Reading
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE PUNGO — Developers including Bill DeSteph, a state senator and former member of the city council, have plans for land on either side of Princess Anne Road near the Pungo stoplight that could bring more than 100… Continue Reading
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE PUNGO — Is Pungo a magisterial district from years past? A former city voting borough? An unincorporated village encompassing roughly a mile around the light at Princess Anne and Indian River roads? The crossroads of the world (where sometimes it’s mighty… Continue Reading
BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE ASHVILLE PARK — Local Girl Scouts were among those who visited this neighborhood off Princess Anne Road near Pungo on Saturday, March 11, to knock on every door. They delivered a simple pitch. Though it was cookie… Continue Reading