VIRGINIA BEACH — A plan to design a public park at Rudee Loop is moving forward, but some City Council members aired concerns this week about the cost to eventually build and maintain it.
The City Council approved $4 million for the park design a year ago, and the city recently awarded the design contract to Dills Architects of Virginia Beach. Representatives of the firm and its partners talked about their approach to maintain open vistas for the project at the council meeting Tuesday.
“Few places in the city, and I would say on the East Coast … offer the sort of dynamic beauty that happens at this site,” said Clay Dills, owner of Dills Architects.
Rudee Loop, the resort area’s southernmost end, is surrounded by water on three sides. It overlooks the ocean and Rudee Inlet and, the city says, is widely considered one of the most prized undeveloped pieces of waterfront property on the East Coast. The land is currently used for public parking and a staging area for large-scale Oceanfront festivals.
In addition to the design money, Virginia Beach transferred $60 million from a resort area parking fund to “Rudee Loop Park Development” in this year’s budget. Following the Tuesday presentation, several council members said they’re leery about paying that much for a park at Rudee Loop given the multitude of needs across the city.
“Our job is to be based in reality, and I don’t see how we can move forward with a $60 million pet project when we have neighborhoods that don’t have sidewalks,” Councilman Chris Taylor said.
Taylor cited several projects that are costing more than planned, including flood protection, renovations to the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center and the 5/31 memorial park, of which Dills Architects is the designer.
“I know our citizens don’t want another project that’s going to be in a deficit,” Taylor said.
But several of his colleagues said they support investing in a “world-class” park with a parking garage at Rudee Loop.
“We owe it to ourselves as the largest city in the commonwealth, as a tourist destination, on literally the last piece of undeveloped space within anywhere even close to here on the East Coast, to let some creativity happen and to think big,” Councilman Joash Schulman said.
In 2022, the city invited real estate developers to submit development ideas for roughly 8 acres of city-owned land at Rudee Loop. The city’s criteria included support for the existing surfing and fishing environment and maintaining public access to the beach, Boardwalk and inlet. Four proposals were submitted, including a park design by the city’s department of Parks and Recreation.
The city also conducted a public survey on Rudee Loop last year. Of more than 4,000 respondents, 71% wanted “green/open space,” and 83% didn’t want a hotel or resort on the property.
On Tuesday, council member Barbara Henley said she didn’t expect open space to cost so much. She and council member Sabrina Wooten had voted against the $4 million in design funding, transferred from a tourism fund.
“I can’t imagine spending this much money and leaving it open,” Henley said.
Councilmember David Hutcheson, the city’s former fire chief, said he’s having a hard time justifying the cost of a park at Rudee Loop after having to fight to get money in the budget this year to hire more firefighters.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be, but there’s a definite nervousness in me about it,” Hutcheson said.
The design team will come back to City Council with recommendations on how the park can generate revenue and what the operating costs will be.
Dills will work with landscape architecture firms EDSA and Scape as well as BRV, a company that specializes in park budgets and has worked on midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park, which features eateries, bars and New York City’s only free admission ice skating rink.
The Miles Agency, led by former Virginia Beach City Council member Delceno Miles, will handle public engagement. And local contractor Sussex Development Corp. will be in charge of construction cost control.
City Manager Patrick Duhaney tried to reassure council members that nothing’s set in stone at this point. The design is still in the concept phase and he said City Council will be able to weigh in on the final cost.
“It’s not an approval to move forward yet,” Duhaney said.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
