Good Afternoon,
Welcome to summer! I hope everyone has some fun plans for spending time with family and friends in the hot months ahead.
Norfolk City Council remains very busy during the summer months. We take a recess for about three weeks in August, but, otherwise, we are moving forward with lots on our agenda.
I had the great pleasure of speaking at a few civic leagues this month. The Bollingbrook Civic League took advantage of a beautiful evening and had their meeting outside of the church where they regularly meet. Norfolk Police Officer Old gave his report on the church steps and I spoke on the sidewalk! I loved it! Talk about community…everyone was so engaged and really appreciated the sense of belonging. Also, I attended the Monticello Village Civic League and heard a great presentation from our Public Works department on stormwater. I spoke at the Crossroads Civic League where we talked about Northside Park and additional Park Rangers being hired through the 2020 budget. I spoke at the Park Place Civic League where they held a brief meeting followed by a neighborhood social.
PrideFest 2019 in Hampton Roads was a great success in Norfolk this month. PrideWeek kicked off with a Party at the Palace Shops in Ghent followed by many other events in the community including PrideFest at Town Point Park on Saturday. Attendance was strong at all of the events.
Please know I am still very focused on pedestrian and safety improvements along the Hampton Blvd. corridor from Admiral Taussig Blvd. to Redgate Avenue. While many of the nearly twenty traffic calming recommendations that originated from the Hampton Blvd. Traffic Task Force have been implemented, there are still more to come. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission will embark on a traffic study of Hampton Blvd. beginning in July. I look forward to seeing the outcome of that study with an expansive traffic data deep dive. At the Tuesday, June 25 Norfolk City Council meeting, we discussed the forthcoming Norfolk Multimodal Transportation Master Plan. While discussing this plan, many on Council asked about the work of the Task Force and I was proud to be able to share the extensive work of the Task Force and how the successes will be implemented in the other major traffic corridors in the city.
Norfolk has another tool in the tool box to address sea level rise and flooding issues. What are Special Service Districts? In June Norfolk City Council adopted a policy whereby residents of Norfolk can collectively decide to pursue projects that would benefit neighborhoods impacted by sea level rise and flooding issues by paying additional real estate tax. Want to dredge a waterway that would ultimately reduce flooding in a defined geography? Residents can initiate projects and work with the city to determine the feasibility of a project and a project boundary. To start, at least 30% of owners can sign a petition to initiate a plan development by Public Works and the Office of Budget and Strategic Planning. Then, owners of at least 75% of the parcels and of at least 50% of the total property value in the defined boundary must formally pledge support of the plan before it comes to City Council for approval and implementation. We have only adopted the policy at this point and we look forward to exploring interest across the city.
Enjoy the photos below. Grady is growing up ….not really. He is all puppy…who am I kidding?
Have a great weekend!
Courtney
