VIRGINIA BEACH — Now that city voters have thrown their weight behind an ambitious plan backed by borrowing that will speed up some key projects to help fight flooding, city officials are poised to act quickly and establish a promised framework and oversight.
More than seven in 10 voters backed using $567.5 million dollars in funding raised through bonds to pay for design and construction of 21 projects, including four in southern Virginia Beach. Backed with voter approval, the City Council is scheduled on Tuesday, Nov. 16, to consider a resolutions meant to authorize moving forward the process of securing and using the money. A public hearing is scheduled during the meeting.
City Manager Patrick Duhaney said the level of public support for the ballot measure was exciting. The staff is preparing materials for the City Council to consider this coming week during its regular meeting, which will come a day after the results of the election are expected to be certified.
“Now the real work begins,” Duhaney said in an interview Wednesday, Nov. 10. “We’re really focused on making sure we deliver this in a way that helps deliver all the benefits we told the citizens they would see from this.”
Mayor Bobby Dyer on Thursday, Nov. 11, said he believed the referendum would pass, but he had not anticipated that it would do so by such a wide margin.
“It was a pleasant surprise that it was 73 percent,” he said. “We take it as a vote of confidence from the public in the government that we’re going to do what we said we are going to do.”
Dyer said the city’s efforts to fight recurrent flooding and the effects of sea level rise will be long-term, but the coming funding for initial projects in the flood protection plan is a good start.
The City Council on Tuesday aims to authorize the bond sale and establish the framework for use of the funds, as well as citizen oversight and a promise to hold stormwater fees in place through 2028, among other assurances made in a resolution adopted in September by the council.
“We’re doing that expeditiously,” Dyer said.
Specifically, the council is expected to consider a slate of ordinances and resolutions to issue the bonds, appropriate the funding for the projects, freeze the stormwater fee, create a financial plan for using the bond funding, establish a citizen oversight board and address the acquisition strategy for the projects approved in the referendum.
The text of the ordinances and resolutions was not available as the print edition of The Independent News went to press late Thursday, Nov. 11, but it is now online at this link.
The city plans to pay off bond debt over 20 years, and it will raise the real estate tax rate by 4.3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to do so. The tax hike is expected to go into effect in July, according to the city.
City officials, throughout meetings with citizens and in public remarks, have stressed that the money will only go toward the stated projects, which include a mix of existing projects, such as marsh restoration efforts in Back Bay, and new items that would have taken many more decades to complete without this infusion of funding.
“We’re not getting a credit card to go borrow other stuff,” said City Councilmember John Moss, who holds an at-large seat, during a meeting about the plan for members of the public on Thursday, Oct. 7, in Kempsville.
Moss has advocated for passage of the referendum and authored with Councilmember Guy Tower the resolution they and their colleagues adopted in September.
“Thank you to the public for their vote of confidence in the City Council and the city staff to deliver on those 21 projects,” Moss said during a council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 9, “and also to step up our maintenance of ditches, canals and ponds as a separate initiative.”
Moss called the level of support humbling. “Like we tell our kids, ‘Never short yourself. Always invest in yourself. And this bond referendum is an investment in the future of Virginia Beach.”
© 2021 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC
I was wondering and attempting to find out about the Referendum that was on the 2018 Ballot. I have been asking ever since about this. It passed, but we never saw any action by local Government. I have called the voter register office and they agree that this gives the authorization to lower taxes for those who qualify. The who and how is up to the local government, i.e. City Council. They sure act fast to increase our taxes, but where is the decrease for those who would qualify? I have contacted my representatives, Luria, Knight, Desteph and all of City Council. I received nothing. Except from Mrs. Wooten on FB who thought I was talking about the current Bond Referendum. She got quite when I informed her of her mistake. Could you do some investigative work on this? It passed overwhelmingly in 2018. Three years and no action on it. But hey sure act to increase out taxes pretty fast. I live in Pungo and would qualify having spent a bunch of money on my property for flood mitigation.
Virginia Question 1, Property Tax Exemption for Flood Abatement Amendment (2018)
https://ballotpedia.org/Virginia_Question_1,_Property_Tax_Exemption_for_Flood_Abatement_Amendment_(2018)?fbclid=IwAR2dsuGsDcd0bF_uvAh3qE5NIyPdbMXVCnbX8p6Vh7qlSAypjoQCVV8FTb0