VIRGINIA BEACH — Historic Kempsville project plans are back in play after a decade of standstill so the city could gain ownership of all the land on a 10-acre property.
City Council agreed Tuesday for 60 days of further work, including a survey of the property in the northeast quadrant of Princess Anne and Witchduck roads to identify utilities and potential obstacles on the land. The property will be open for multi-use development bids in the coming months.
The Historic Kempsville Citizens Advisory Committee met with City Economic Development Director Emily Archer in March to discuss the vision for potential developments.
“What really came out is they just didn’t want a single use — they wanted a mixture of uses to go there,” Archer said. “So if a residential use only came in, that would not be well received.”
The committee expressed their hopes of maintaining the historic character of the area, providing walkable internal circulation, and the opportunity to provide input on proposals.
“We’ve been working hard to make that portion of Kempsville one, feel historic and two, feel like there’s a lot of history,” said committee Chair Bobbie Gribble. “We want to give the best to the community. Just plain strip malls is not what we were looking for.”
A majority agreed that options for housing should include rent or mortgage at about $1,900 per month for a two-person household. Parking, stormwater and traffic concerns were also raised, Archer said.
“This project, this corner, has been sitting essentially vacant for a really long time,” said Councilman Michael Berlucchi. “We’re asking that the market bring something forward that’s in cohesion and in concert with the visioning that’s occurred.”
The city is expected to release a request for proposal in either September or October, which would be open for 60 to 90 days.
Twenty years ago, the Historic Kempsville Area Master Plan was adopted, then amended in 2014. An RFP was issued for the parcels in 2015, which did not come to fruition due to complications with external ownership of some of the land, according to city officials.
Located in District 3, the plot consists of an open field, public artwork, demolished buildings, an unused carpeting company, Virginia Beach Fire Station 9, a lease to the Ruritan Club and a used car dealership. The city has been demolishing buildings as they’ve acquired them from a private owner, and plans to tear down the former carpet business in the next year.
Berlucchi emphasized the ability to turn down any proposals they receive through the RFP.
“At the end of the day, (it) doesn’t mean we have to select any of them if we don’t think that they’re the right fit for our community or this area,” Berlucchi said.
Maggie Allwein, 757-672-3310, maggie.allwein@virginiamedia.com