CAPE STORY BY THE SEA

MONTHLY CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEETING

VIRGINIA BEACH RESORT HOTEL

January 12, 2009 at 7:30pm

I.    Call to Order

II.  Minutes – December Meeting

III. Treasurers Report

Special Program:

CSBTS January 12 meeting– City officials & bike trail safety discussion

City Officials Mike Shahsiah, Bob Gey and Councilman Jim Wood

The Cape Story Civic Association is requesting that the City of Virginia Beach consider changing the stop signs at the bike path so that vehicular traffic be required to stop instead of the regular bike path pedestrians. This request was prompted by the recent accident at the bike path and Wake Forest Street where a young boy was struck by a truck. This is the third known incident of this type within the past two years. Many members of the Civic Association noted that a vast majority of drivers today either completely stop or “roll through” the intersections, while others totally ignore the caution signs and continue to accelerate.

Please mark your calendar for the January 12 CSBTS Civic Association meeting at 7:30 PM in the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel and Conference Center. There will be a bulletin board in the hotel lobby indicating the assigned room for the meeting.  Our City Council representative, Mr. James Wood, will attend this meeting and has graciously made arrangements for the appropriate city officials to also attend. Please plan on attending this meeting and hopefully a reasonable agreement can be reached that will avoid a tragic accident.

The City as well of the residents of CSBTS have their own views as to how to best approach this problem, i.e., speed bumps, stop signs, reduced speed limit, etc.  Anyone who has any thoughts, suggestions or that may be affected by any proposed changes should plan on attending.  I recently spoke with a long time resident who resides at the intersection of the bike path and one of the cross streets.  He indicated that he personally could remember about 12-15 children being struck at his intersection.

And

Welcome to Ft. Story LTC Jansen and Little Creek Capt. Crow

Commanders

IV. Committee Reports

V. Old Business

VI. New Business

VII. Adjourn

We need as many folks to turn out for this meeting as possible.  Won’t you PLEASE attend, and ask a neighbor to come along too:

CAPE STORY BY THE SEA MONTHLY MEETING MONDAY

  JANUARY 12, 2009 AT 7:30 PM

AT THE VIRGINIA BEACH RESORT HOTEL, 2nd Floor

     BIKE TRAIL SAFETY DISCUSSION WITH CITY OFFICIALS

One item of discussion will be bike path safety.

See you there!

CSBTS members,
This is to keep you informed of the  results  of the public hearing at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) offices in Newport News on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 regarding additional pound nets in the Chesapeake Bay off Cape Story by the Sea. 

  Virginia
Marine Resources Commission
Fisheries Management Division
2600 Washington Avenue, 3rd Floor
Newport News, VA 23607
http://www.mrc.virginia.gov

At the monthly meeting on Monday, November 24, 2008, the SDCC- Shore Drive Community Coalition-representing over 30 Shore Drive civic and condo organizations, received information on and had discussion of the pound net proposal on the Chesapeake Bay off Shore Drive.  The  large population of dolphin in our area was recognized as unique to our part of the bay and preserving the dolphin population was a concern along with the safety of the residents using the bay for recreational activities.

THANK YOU to the CSBTS representatives and for providing the following information. 

     COMMENTS FROM PUBLIC HEARING:

After a one hour discussion with public comment (after waiting almost 3 ½ hours before it was our turn), the first set of pound net applications for our beach was denied!  It was quite an interesting process to see.  Two people spoke in favor of the nets.  7 spoke against including Lisa Bailey, John Onufer of Cape Story, Bob Low of The Landings, David Albis of Cape Story Civic Association, Mark Swingle of the VA Aquarium and Marine Science Center, Demetri Hionis – current owner of the existing pound nets, and Tom Powers from outside our area. 

We could see the stack of papers from emails and letters.  However, I do believe it is the actual presence and speaking that do promote your issue the best.  Our comments though could not be transferred towards the second pending set of applications to be heard in Dec.  Even though we had strong reasoning behind navigational hazards and safety of residents for our increasingly populated beach/neighborhoods, I believe it was mainly the dolphin issues that denied the applications.

So please continue to forward the information to other residents because letters/emails/faxes are still being accepted for the 2nd set of applications.  We must also start working with our city to ensure that as residents our best interests are protected in the waters off of our shores.  We must also pursue better public notice so future applications do not leave us blindsided with little time to respond.