A plan to protect the Norfolk community against storm risk faces challenges. Residents see the plan as a threat to their enjoyment of the waterfront, and it may also compromise property values.
Storm Risk Protection Plan
In June, a resident from Norfolk’s historic Freemason district invited Kyle Spencer, the city’s resilience officer, to present a coastal storm risk management plan. The plan, a $2.66 billion U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to protect the city from devastating floods, involved a floodwall, 11 feet or more high, that would run through the community.
Spencer showed various wall alignment options. One would slice between two condominium structures and one of the cobblestone streets that served as one of the key entryways. Meanwhile, another option would hug the waterfront and cross the Elizabeth River. The specifications would require the wall to rise about 17 feet above water.
Eric Thompson, the Freemason Harbour Condominium Association President, led a meeting on an evening in mid-July to organize against the storm risk protection plan. According to him, the process has had no visibility, intentionally or unintentionally. Condo units are valued from $350,000 to over $500,000. They asked Spencer if homeowners would be compensated for lost property value. Spencer responded that they might get lower flood insurance rates.
Backlash From Homeowners
At the July meeting, Thompson told two dozen residents that they’ll save $2,000 a year on flood insurance but lose $200,000 in property values per unit. His presentation at the meeting showed the wall at street level—something the city did not include in its presentations. In Miami, similar renderings showed the wall running through the waterfront downtown. This led to a backlash, and the city demanded a new strategy from the Corps.
In an interview, Spencer stated several reasons why similar renderings have not been made. He says it’s too early in the design. Moreover, he wants to show that the wall is integrated into the community, and his office does not have as many resources. According to Spencer, showing a big, ugly, gray wall does not represent what will truly happen.
The July meeting concluded with a plan to organize a campaign. Residents would write a letter to Virginia’s congressional delegation stating their objections and engage in the project’s required historic preservation overview.
A Challenging Implementation
The Freemason group is the most recent group to complain about the city’s failure to adequately inform residents about the plan’s details. It’s the biggest infrastructure project in Norfolk’s history. The city is ahead of the threatened waterfront cities in the country when it comes to plans to combat rising waters.
The City Council approved a partnership with the Army Corps the year prior, obligating the city to contribute a $931 million local share and proceed with design and construction. Its plan will reshape the city as there will be over eight miles of walls as high as 16 feet along the wealthiest communities. There will also be softer solutions, like grasses planted along shorelines in other places.
Nonetheless, implementing these storm risk plans has proven complicated. There have been approximately 200 utility conflicts in the first phase along the downtown, which has slowed progress in the plan. Meanwhile, lower-income residents, largely Black Southside the previous year, contested the failure to provide them with walls, noting that property values were depressed by historical redlining.
Many critics have pointed out that the Corps’ cost-benefit analysis valued property over people and grey infrastructure over green solutions. This analysis was detrimental to both the environment and disadvantaged communities.
Continued Opposition
After the City Council approved the partnership, it passed a resolution to study the feasibility of adding Southside walls. In July 2023, Spencer sent a formal request letter. Mayor Kenneth Alexander, Col. Brian Hallberg (the then district commander), and other city representatives pledged their support and promised to keep the leaders updated through meetings.
At the meeting in July, Thompson stated that flooding was more common further inland from the Freemason community. He says it’s frustrating that the neighborhood will absorb all the negative consequences of a 1% chance of flood hitting the city’s center.
However, the 2019 Corps plan estimated that by 2075, all but a tiny part of the city’s interior would be at risk of flooding from a major typhoon. According to the feasibility study, the storm risk project will provide $122 million in benefits from reduced damage to infrastructure like healthcare facilities, businesses, and homes.
Greg Rutledge, a Hanbury Design architect, historic preservation expert, and a member of the Architectural Review Board in Norfolk, learned about the walls. He wondered why the board wasn’t consulted for the 2019 feasibility study. Rutledge said the ramifications to the city’s interface with the viewshed and waterfront were permanent. He wonders how anyone can consider it a benefit except in terms of economic property.
Outrage From Other Communities
The Southside Civic League leaders were also angry when they learned the study was not funded this year. Lawrence Brown, the Campostella Heights Civic League president, was called by an activist to tell him about a story on the local NPR affiliate WHRO’s news site reporting that funding was not approved to reconsider constructing walls to protect the neighborhoods on the Southside.
Brown and the other Southside leaders were blindsided. Nobody from the city contacted them after the Corps found out two months prior that there was no appropriate funding. Many community residents are mad that they weren’t notified and instead read about it in the paper.
Southside residents say that afterthoughts and the lack of communication only fed the narrative. Kim Sudderth, a Southside activist and Planning Commission member, was trying to be optimistic. According to her, Hallberg repeatedly stated he would advocate for them. Many people wanted to disregard his words, and she feared the pessimistic approach was right.
According to Brown, the city has yet to notify him, but there has been a scheduled Southside Task Force meeting on September 3. Spencer said he failed to tell Brown and the others because he was focused on figuring out why there was no funding. There were also scheduling conflicts that hindered earlier meetings.
An Army Corps spokesperson verified that the North Atlantic office endorsed the new study’s June finding. The study did not need approval from higher-ups and will be considered for the following year’s budget.
No Updates
Mayor Alexander said the city is seeking an earmark to fund the study. They have held meetings with the Office of Management and Budget, the Congressional delegation, and the Corps.
The city officials were not updating the residents of Southside. Instead, they were addressing developer concerns over the initial designs of the storm risk plan, which showed a wall built along Front Street adjacent to the Freemason community. A large waterfront parcel along the street planned for future development has yet to be developed.
According to emails obtained through a public records request, Spencer, Economic Development Director Sean Washington, and City Manager Pat Roberts were discussing holding a meeting with representatives of Gold Key PHR and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Thompson. Spencer told Kristin Mazur, the Corps point person, that he was pressured by the mayor and Roberts to schedule a meeting soon.
On June 6, Roberts emailed Spencer and other city staffers, stating he understands the July workshop’s intention to develop alternative designs to the Front Street CSRM (coastal storm risk management) alignment within the context of the private investment proposed in Fort Norfolk. He says they will ask the Corps to consider different design options and a schedule aligning with private development.
Spencer responded that once the city provided information to the Corps on project proposals, they should think of solutions that would allow both plans to be successful. He has been the point person communicating the plan. Both he and his staff have attended over 80 public meetings. The city also held four open houses to explain the strategy. One hundred fifty-seven people signed into the sessions, though potentially more were in attendance.
Spencer says the city is conducting a better public information campaign for the storm risk plan than for any other project he’s worked on. He isn’t sure why they don’t know and that they’re doing their best to relay the information.
