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June Newsletter

Green Drinks Chesapeake - Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Our next Green Drinks meeting will be on Wednesday, June 25, 6 pm at Recovery Sports Grill,1672 Sentinel Drive, (across from the Kroger's near the I-64/Battlefield interchange).  We'll discuss a new, local Chesapeake Sustainability Network.  

What is Green Drinks?  Green Drinks is mostly for people working on environmental issues, but anyone can come -- people from environmental groups, businesses, government, academia, and as individuals. There is no 'us and them'. Green Drinks is a chance to mingle, share insights, inspire and delight each other. Come out and order some food or a drink (each participant pays for their own drinks and food; if drinking, please do so responsibly!) and join the conversation. Please do share the invite with others who may be interested.

In May, our guest speaker was Cameron Kania from Tidewater Compost.  Tidewater Compost offers residential and commercial food waste composting services to Hampton Roads residents and businesses.  Residential subscribers receive a composting starter kit that includes a 5-gallon bin with airtight lid, 2-gallon kitchen caddy, compostable liners, and a Compostables List fridge magnet.  Depending on the option selected, compost is picked up weekly, bi-weekly, or can be dropped off at one of their drop-off sites.  Subscribers receive 5 gallons of compost 2x a year upon request through their “compost give-back” program. To learn more or sign up, visit Tidewater Compost | Food Waste Recycling and Compost Materials

Greenbrier Area Plan

On May 14, the Planning Commission recommend Approval of the May draft of the Greenbrier Area Plan.  It will probably be presented to the City Council at a Work Session in June and go for approval in July.  

The May draft did an excellent job of defining human-scaled neighborhoods and commercial districts that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly and balancing the needs of people while accommodating vehicular traffic.  Practically all the comments from the Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee were incorporated in the draft.  

But the Plan falls short on taking proactive steps on tree preservation, adopting healthy lighting standards, and protecting birds.   Business as usual will result in the loss of another 300 acres of tree canopy when vacant parcels are developed around Greenbrier.  The only tree preservation recommendations our group made that were incorporated were suggestions for tree planting at the highway interchanges and the edges of City Park.  They also added a mention of increasing tree canopy in Areas of Enhancement. 

Not included were recommendations to 

  • Expand Oak Grove Lake Park to preserve 94 to 110 acres of City and State-owned forested wetlands adjacent to Oak Grove Lake Park.  Although owned by City and State, the land is currently zoned for residential development.
  • Add new project: Implement a street tree planting program in medians along Battlefield Blvd, Knell's Ridge Blvd, Volvo Parkway, Greenbrier Parkway, Military Highway, and Kempsville Road.  Planting 500 trees creates about 5 acres of tree canopy which will help mitigate urban heat island effects, calm traffic, reduce runoff, improve air quality, and beautify the area.
  • Identify incentives to encourage development projects in Areas of Transformation and Areas of Enhancement to a) preserve mature trees during development and b) voluntarily plant tree canopy at coverage percentages higher than the 10% to 20% required by ordinance. 
  • Identify incentives to encourage retrofits of existing parking lots to plant new trees and implement stormwater management best practices.
Part of the rationale the Planning Department shared was that the vision was for Greenbrier to absorb more expected growth in the City and thereby reduce development pressure in the southern part of the City.   Regarding expanding Oak Grove Lake Park, they felt that required more intensive consultation with Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.  

For lighting standards, in the Design Guidelines they added that "Lighting fixtures associated with buildings should consider Dark Sky recommendations, surrounding land uses, and limit light pollution", but only as a "recommended", i.e. not required, guideline.    They did not include the level of detail found in the recently approved Virginia Commerce Park Design Guidelines.   Added to the Building Design section, it is not obvious that this applies to parking lot lighting and it wouldn't directly apply to street lighting, since there is a separate section of the document for the Public Realm and Streets.  It does not address the street lighting color temperature to recommend warmer (<3000K) lighting.  

For bird-safe window design, in the Design Guidelines they added a mention of "building materials and detailing that support the natural habitat and wildlife such as bird-friendly window designs" but with no further detail and only as a "recommended", i.e. not required, guideline.  

You can find the current draft of the documents at Greenbrier Area Plan | Chesapeake, VA

Data Center in Etheridge Manor

Another hot topic at the Planning Commission meeting on May 14 was a proposal to build a 350,000 sq. ft. data center at the corner of Etheridge Manor Blvd. and Centerville Turnpike.  The Council chambers were filled to near capacity with residents opposed to the project.  Over 50 speakers came to explain why this was the wrong place to locate this facility.  A key argument was the high level of uncertainty about the project.  It was unclear how much power or water the data center would consume and if we don't know that, how can one calculate how much noise it would generate?  Are the proffers, based on proposed ordinances in Prince William County, really strict enough to eliminate the negative noise impact?  And what would be the remedy if the data center creates more noise than allowed in the proffer and there is no practical way to reduce the noise further?   A significant comment from one resident with a medical background was how the noise issue is as much a problem of feeling the noise 24x7 as it is hearing it; and that the low-frequency vibrations travel through the ground as well as the air.  

After voting down a motion to Continue the application, the Planning Commission ultimately voted to recommend Denial of the project.  One of the Planning Commissioners suggested that the City should make data centers a Conditional Use.   In this case, the developer needs a zoning change but, if this property were already zoned Industrial, or perhaps even Commercial, under the current regs, the developer could probably build the data center by right with even less oversite. 
The City should probably develop a data center policy, like they developed a solar farm policy, to guide future approvals. 

But the debate on this data center application will now move to the City Council in June.  The City Council will have the final say on whether this project moves forward.   https://www.whro.org/business-growth/2025-05-15/chesapeakes-planning-commission-says-no-to-data-center-proposal

More Planning Commission

Also at the Planning Commission in May was the application for a Virginia Natural Gas Compressor Station located off Military Highway just north of Eva Gardens/Newton Creek neighborhoods.  The Planning Commission recommended Approval.

Going to the Planning Commission in June 
  • PLN-REZ-2023-024 - a Hotel on Gum Road in Western Branch; tree canopy loss of about 2.2 acres
  • PLN-REZ-2024-009 Residential (Multi-Family – 96 units) /Commercial off Centreville Turnpike; tree canopy loss of about 5 acres; preserves 6.9 acres forested wetlands
  • PLN-REZ-2024-010 Residential (Townhouse – 26 units) off Centreville Turnpike; farm site, likely adds about 0.5 acres tree canopy.  
  • PLN-REZ-2024-018 Residential (Multi-Family – 137 units) on Elbow Road, near Centreville Turnpike; tree canopy loss about 9 acres; sets aside 9.2 acres as Conservation-Recreation zoning
  • PLN-USE-2025-004 Contractor/Storage Yard in Camelot; 0.5 acre site, does plant buffer, no significant change in tree cover.
City Council

On May 13, the City Council approved the City Budget.  See a summary of environment-related items in the Capital Improvement Budget in our post on the 2025 City Budget.  

At the Work Session before the May 13 City Council Meeting, Hampton Roads Transit provided a report on the Tier 2 Alternatives for the Connecting Chesapeake Study.  Their recommendation was to do further study on the Bus Rapid Transit options on Alignments A and B.  The next step is for the City Council to formally endorse the recommendations and ask Hampton Roads Transit to proceed with more studies in preparation for potential grant applications.  

On May 20, they approved the new Indian River Design Guidelines addressing topics such as building setbacks, spacing, orientation, façade treatment, site circulation (vehicular and pedestrian), parking, landscaping, lighting and signage in commercial areas along Indian River Road and Military Highway.  The City Council did approve an amendment to include wording on bird-safe window treatments. 

At City Council in June we will see
  • PLN-REZ-2024-019 - a Virginia Natural Gas Compressor Station located off Military Highway just north of Eva Gardens/Newton Creek neighborhoods.  Net tree canopy loss of about 1.6 acres
  • PLN-REZ-2025-002 - Data Center at corner Centerville Turnpike and Etheridge Manor Boulevard.  Net tree canopy loss of about 3.9 acres.  Planning Commission recommend Denial.  
General Assembly

The Virginia League of Conservation Voters has issued its annual General Assembly Conservation Scorecard, ranking all 140 lawmakers based on how they vote on pressing conservation issues during the 2025 legislative session.  See how your lawmaker voted on key conservation issues at 2025 Conservation Scorecard - Virginia LCV - Conservation's Political Voice.

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