Plans for Virginia Beach dredge transfer station stall

VIRGINIA BEACH
 
The city's plan to build a dredge transfer station across from Broad Bay Island has hit several snags as officials deal with an army of angry residents and demands for more information from state regulators.
 
The transfer station, where dug-up silt and debris from some of the city's planned neighborhood dredging projects could be loaded from barges onto trucks and then hauled away, is unlikely to move ahead as quickly as Beach officials initially had hoped.
 
Earlier this month, Steven Bowman, the head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, wrote to City Manager Jim Spore that the city's application "was not ripe for a Commission hearing at this time," and asked for more details about the transfer station.
 
VMRC's response places "a de facto halt" on the transfer station plan, said Councilman Jim Wood, who represents the Lynnhaven district, where it is proposed.
 
On Tuesday, the City Council is scheduled to vote to turn the controversial issue over to an advisory group for review. The council will bring the city Beaches and Waterways Advisory Commission, which formally met last in June 2007, back together again to study the issue. The group will present a recommendation to council in February, further delaying the proposal.
 
"It will be an independent group, looking at it cold," Wood said. "It will afford an opportunity for the public to have a meaningful participation."
 
Over the past few months, meetings between Beach staff and civic groups along Shore Drive about the transfer station have become increasingly testy.
 
"There's a lot of hysteria and emotion out there that frankly isn't helpful," said Wood, who hopes that the commission will bring some objectivity to the issue.
 
Council members have been blanketed with emails against the project. The opposition says it has collected more than 1,000 signatures raising concerns about the station. Lynn Hume, who lives across the channel from the proposed station, has created a website, www.longcreekwetlands.com, and state legislators, including Republican Del. Bob Purkey, who lives on Broad Bay Island, have gotten involved.
 
Hume's site is peppered with links to city documents and meeting minutes, phrases are highlighted in red, capitalized and bolded for emphasis, and readers are warned that the project will be "DEVASTATING." She says the station has the potential to change her neighborhood with more trucks and barge traffic.
 
David Williams, the president of the Shore Drive Community Coalition, which has also questioned the station, said he supports the involvement of the commission. Many residents support the dredging, but they aren't sure how frequently the barges will be coming through the channel and how many trucks will drive by their homes, Williams said.
 
The city launched its neighborhood dredging program last year to help residents dredge their channels if they agree to about a 20 percent increase in their real estate taxes. Dredging can mean access for boats and higher property values. To date, residents of 11 waterfront communities have expressed interest.
 
The dredging projects would need City Council approval, and the Beach needs to find multiple sites throughout the city to unload the dredge spoils from barges. The location across from Broad Bay Island, on Maple Street, is one of the sites Beach officials have targeted, and has caused the most controversy.
 
The Maple Street property already serves as a spoils site for the Army Corps of Engineers, which pipes sand from dredge projects every few years. The city's plan, however, would be a more intensive use, with a barge and excavator.
 
Beach officials haven't determined which communities will need to use Maple Street for dredge spoils or how much of an impact it will have on nearby residents, Wood said.
 
There's a need for more specific information, said Purkey, who has met with Beach staff and written letters to the VMRC and the state attorney general.
 
"Frankly, the dredging needs to take place," Purkey said. "But at the same time, how do you accommodate a neighborhood that's going to be disadvantaged?"
 
Purkey has asked state officials whether it would be legal for the city to compensate with a tax abatement some of the neighborhoods that would suffer by having a dredge transfer station nearby. Purkey declined to comment on whether his home would be among those that could be financially damaged by the proposed transfer station.
 
"I'm really doing fact-finding," Purkey said. "I'm maintaining a total objectivity."
 
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com