Archive for June, 2009

The redevelopment recommended in the Virginia Beach City Council Resort Area Strategic Action Plan is incompatible with Oceana jet operations.

The Resort Area Strategic Action Plan specifies high-density residential condominiums, apartments and offices planned for the entire area from Laskin Road to Rudee Loop. The development of high density would be significant encroachment by the city into noise zones 65 db, 70 db and 75 db as shown in the Air Installations Compatibility Use Zones (AICUZ) map.

The plan shows three general areas for redevelopment: North Beach, Central Beach and South Beach. North Beach is the area near Laskin Road. The Laskin Road corridor development will, in the initial phase, include a condo/apartment complex in the block from Pacific Ave. to Artic Ave and will be in a 65db area. Other high density development will eventually follow along Laskin Road and adjacent streets. The area from Laskin Road to 19th St. is scheduled for additional high-density development throughout. Much of that area is in the 70db zone and the area around the Birdneck Road/Laskin Road intersection is within an APZ2.

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What game is the Virginia Beach City Council playing with Oceana Naval Air Station?

City Council has encroached on Oceana throughout the last 30 years or so. Council encroached so much and so frequently that in 2005 the United States Navy decided to include Oceana on the new Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC) candidate list. Finally, the Navy got city council’s undivided attention.

Council barely escaped from the BRAC commission decision to close Oceana and Oceana has remained open as a jet training base. Subsequently, council has worked with Oceana to develop a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) in which council would discuss pending redevelopment projects with Oceana to stay within the memorandum guidelines.

On May 29th the city of Virginia Beach declared restrictive easements on a number of properties in the Inter-facility Traffic Area (ITA) and conveyed those properties to the Navy. A Navy spokesperson stated that the city and the Navy are working together to prevent future encroachment. And that the base will remain viable as long as no more encroachment occurs. It was also pointed out that Oceana is the city’s largest employer with more than 16,000 military and civilian personnel and a gross payroll of more than $1.18 billion.

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