Convention center hotel? The Virginia Beach City Council will look at the proposals next year.
Development of the Dome site? Next year.
Plans to redevelop the Pembroke and Burton Station corridors? Back before the council in November. But don't bet on a decision in election week.
With the mayor and three council members facing opposition, the council has, for months now, methodically delayed votes on the Beach's redevelopment projects. The plans represent big, provocative ideas that promise hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment contingent on tens of millions of public investment, trade-offs certain to make for a contentious debate.
That's the reason city leaders need to be talking about them now, not after the election. The unofficial blackout that's being observed allows the incumbents to manage the debates for self-serving reasons, shutting citizens out.
Even small projects are being put off. The council last week decided it needs six months to mull over whether to permit a 150-home subdivision to be built in the shadow of its mega landfill, Mount Trashmore II.
The council's election-year jitters are an open secret and clearly a source of frustration. Six months ago, after hearing from some council members that "nothing is going in front of council until after the election," Doug Ellis, a member of the Beach's economic development authority, told city leaders in an e-mail that he hoped that did not include the convention center hotel. In the e-mail, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Ellis said that was "no way to run the largest city in Virginia."
As indisputable as his advice is, nothing has changed since he dispatched it.
If those running for re-election believe these projects move the city in the right direction, and there's a strong argument for that view, then this is the time to be educating the public, engaging the critics and building popular support.
Unless the mayor and the council are willing to take the heat, there's no way Virginia Beach will resemble all those handsome renderings they keep getting consultants to churn out.
There's an election for council every two years. A city as big and as dynamic as Virginia Beach can't afford to shift into neutral each time.
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You've got to be kidding
Dyer is definitely trying to get things done and has forged alliances with the pro-business side (Jones, Wilson & Wood). I expect great things from him.
DeSteph has done absolutely nothing other than spout off meaningless rhetoric. He has no apparent allies on council and has pushed nothing through.
Looks like the House of Representatives to me
This is status-quo. Nobody wants to do anything except for DeSteph and Dyer. DeSteph has been pushing alternative energy strategies and saying that the city overstated revenues and uderstated expenses for the last year. One other thing he says all the time is we need to look at economic deveopment in the area of health care, energy, and military. Maybe the rest of council needs to start jumping on board and coming up with some other strategies and ideas.
Dyer on the other hand has stated that this council has to get something done before the elections and not be seen as a do nothing council. McClanan has gone along with DeSteph because he's the only one that makes sense. I'm also glad the editors finally woke up and saw what was really happeneing.