What to Know About Tonight's Norfolk City Council Meeting

Here’s what’s coming up in the City Council meetings today, Tuesday, November 28th. I’ve tried to provide the plain English summary of what each item is and add background context where I can.

Full Agenda Link

3:30 pm City Council Informal Session

LED STREETLIGHT CONVERSION 

Presenters:John Stevenson, Director of TransportationSusan Simon, Outdoor Lighting Project Coordinator Dominion Energy

Background:

• Here’s a link to a City webpage with extensive info on the program

• Dominion’s LED Light Conversion program

The Gist

• At the time of publication we don’t know the full details of the presentation; however, it’s out best guess that this is just an update on the start multi-year project to convert street lights from High Pressure Sodium bulbs to LED. 

• According to the City’s plan, they’re targeting roughly 1000 bulb replacements a month. 

The Good

• LED bulbs are more efficient and should result in significant cost savings.

• Dominion Energy may be providing rebates or incentives for the conversion

• LED bulbs are typically brighter and should increase nighttime visibility for drivers and pedestrians

The Questionable

• Brighter LED lights can increase light pollution by a factor of 2.5x, although it’s not clear the extent to which this matters in the heart of an urban area with high levels of existing light pollution. 

• The American Medical Association has warned of potential harmful human and environmental consequences of LED street lights, and issued design guidance to reduce the detrimental effects. 

• The AMA advises that outdoor night lighting should not have a CT over 3,000 Kelvin temperature; a white LED light, popular in cities like Seattle and New York, can have a CT of 4,000-5,000K. How the City of Norfolk’s new lightbulbs rank is unclear. 

SCHOOL ZONE SPEED CAMERAS 

Presenter:John Stevenson, Director of Transportation

Background:

• In 2020, the State of Virginia passed legislation allowing the use of speed cameras.

• Legally, penalties cannot exceed $100

• There are already (at least) 172 license plate reading cameras in Norfolk, used by the police department. These don’t enforce speed limits.

• At the time of installation, the Police Department had not implemented a privacy plan. 

• Delegate Jackie Glass has expressed concern over the use of the data collected and plans to introduce legislation related to it during the upcoming General Assembly session. 

• Pedestrian deaths are up nearly 20% across the Commonwealth last year. 

The Pros:

• 24/7 digital enforcement could aid in reducing pedestrian deaths due to speeding, particularly in these child-heavy zones. 

• Automatic ticketing and billing could introduce new revenue to the City budget with little additional manpower required. Although tickets are limited to $100. 

The Questionable:

• What data is collected and captured by the cameras?

• Has Norfolk PD implemented a privacy policy for this type of technology?

• What third-party vendor will be deploying the technology and what access will they have to the data?

• Can recorded video be used in proceedings not related to speeding?

CITY PLANNING UPDATE 

Presenter:Robert Tajan, Director of Planning

The Gist

• The update should cover items in the Pending Land Use report. 

• It may additionally cover actions from the most recent City Planning Commission Public Hearing. 

6:00 pm City Council Formal Session Meeting

PUBLIC HEARINGS

PH-1- Authorizing the sale of property at 2432 Carnoa Avenue via the City’s online real estate auction system

PH-2 - Authorizing the Olde Huntersville Empowerment Coalition to lease office space at the Huntersville Multipurpose Center, located at 830 Goff Street.

PH-3 - Amending the Capital Improvement Plan Budget to increase the amounts allocated for Maury and Booker T. Washington High Schools. $30 million for constructing a new Maury High School, and $3.5 million for renovating Booker T. Washington High School. These increases are grant funds are coming from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) through the Commonwealth’s School Construction Assistance Program (SCAP).

CONSENT AGENDA

These items are typically passed in a single collective vote, but can be broken out into individual votes. These typically fall under the “non-controversial” category. 

C-1 Elation Brewing expanding to include permanent outdoor dining, a new indoor area, and to allow outdoor entertainment. This item saw a bit of back and forth earlier in the process with regards to the hours that they would allow live entertainment with their large garage doors open. 

C-2 Short Term Rental Conditional Use Permit in Ocean View at 2450 East Ocean View Avenue. Councilman Tommy Smigiel has sought a pause to approving new Short Term Rentals. 

C-3 A property owner is giving the City an easement, i.e. right of access, to some utility infrastructure located on the property. 

C-4 Standard tax refund to a business that overpaid taxes. 

C-5 Allowing Verizon “Right of Entry” at a city property in order to manage and maintain a communication duct bank, which (to the best of our knowledge) is a series of underground tubes or pipes that act as conduit for communication cables.  

REGULAR AGENDA

R-1 Voting to support the City’s Legislative Priorities

• Full Text here

• Highlights include arena funding mechanisms, expanded speed enforcement camera usage, affordable housing access, matching funds for the floodwall project, school construction funding, and HRBT funding. 

• This publicly endorses certain policies, but the Intergovernmental Relations staff will be responsible for lobbying to make them reality in Richmond. Norfolk’s elected officials in the General Assembly typically work to support these as well. 

R-2 Authorizing the use of $25,000 in donated funds and $25,000 in matching City funds for public art at  225 West Olney Road. The funds come from Marathon Development Group, which is building the Fusion at NEON apartment complex at 225 West Olney Road. 

R-3 Authorizing the City to accept funds from Telecommunication and Wireless Companies for using City Right-of-Way. The funds are designated to be place in special account reserved for offsetting the City’s cost associated with managing Rights-of-Ways. More information on the legalese of Right of Ways in the City is available here. 

R-4 Authorizing a grant agreement with the US Department of Transit for a project under the Safe Streets and Roads for all grant program. $240,000 in Federal funds with a $60,000 local match. 

R-5 Accepting VDOT grant funds ($658,100) to improve pedestrian safety at Tidewater Drive and Easy Street. Tidewater Drive is “the most dangerous road for pedestrians.”

R-6 Authorizing a agreement between VDOT and the City on the administration of a improving two segments of Hampton Blvd extending from Little Creek Road to Ellyson Avenue. Total project is expected to cost around $1.5 million. Only $20,000 will come from the City of Norfolk.  

R-7 Accepting grant funds from the Department of Transit to improve pedestrian safety at Ballentine Boulevard. These funds come through SMART SCALE which is a competitive review process started in 2017. The Commonwealth is set to review how this funding process works this year. 

R-8 This ordinance would adjust some of the compensation plans for city employees. The adjustments change some “supplements” for positions in Constitutional Officers, Department of Human Services, and others. This seems mostly administrative, however, a simple adjustment to the compensation plan is how Council changed the severance package for Chip Filer ahead of his firing earlier this year. 

R-9 This ordinance would decline to allow a union to bargain with the City on behalf of City employees. Collective bargaining agreements were only recently allowed by 2020 legislation. Fairfax, Loudon, Arlington, Richmond, Alexandria, and Portsmouth have accepted collective bargaining agreements since 2020. 

If you want to watch the livestream of the meetings you can do so here.