Marshview Park Master Plan

The Marshview property can offer nearby residents amenities including open nature trails, boardwalks, open play recreational fields, and possibly a dog park. Through environmentally sensitive design and construction, these elements could be integrated with the natural environment in a manner that does not degrade the natural resources or beauty of the property. Exhibits, public art, and geocaching could also be integrated throughout the trails, adding to the environmental education opportunities within Owl Creek. The master plan is being updated based on guidance contained in the Virginia Aquarium & Owl Creek Plan, recently adopted by City Council in December 2011.

 

​This concept is the result of multiple public involvement meetings since March 2012.  The plan maintains existing trail linkages, and future phases include a dog park, multipurpose open area, playgrounds, picnic shelters, disc golf course, multi-use trails and restrooms.

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The City is awarded $100,000 by the Department of Conservation and Recreation for a trail enhancement project for the new Marshview Park. 

May 2010

From 2005-2007, negotiations between the City and U.S. Navy about the Marshview property were tabled due to issues surrounding the 2005 BRAC decision regarding the recommendation for Oceana NAS. After positive resolution of the BRAC decision, discussions about the Marshview property between the U.S. Navy and City were rekindled. In late 2008, the U.S. Navy and the Virginia Beach City Council approved an exchange agreement whereby the City would convey a restrictive easement on land it acquired on Salem Road in the Oceana NAS – Fentress NALF Inter-facility Traffic Area in return for the U.S. Navy conveying the 82-acre Marshview property. The City and U.S. Navy are in the final due diligence stages of conveying the property and are scheduled to close by the end of 2009.

From 2000 to 2002, an extensive public involvement was coordinated by the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation as part of the Marshview conceptual park planning. A park steering committee was formed to guide the park planning process and consisted of representatives from the adjacent neighborhoods, U.S. Navy military and civilian staff, and City Police, Parks and Recreation, Public Works and Planning staff.

 

A public open house was conducted in May 2002 for the preliminary concept park plan report to be presented and get feedback from the general public. Sixty-seven people attended the open house and 46 completed surveys (return rate of 69%) that yielded valuable input which was used in creating a the final Marshview Park Concept Design Report in August 2002. 

 

The preservation of the Marshview Property and its recommendation to be a future Oceanfront community park was included in the Virginia Beach Outdoors Plan 2000 and 2008 versions, which were adopted by City Council as the City’s guidance document for open space acquisition and outdoor recreational planning. 

 

From 2002 to 2004, U.S. Navy officials were gaining approval up the chain-of-command from Oceana NAS to Norfolk’s Regional Command to Washington, D.C. to convey the Marshview property to the City as a park in fulfillment of the recently completed report. 

In the early 1990s, the City and U.S. Navy officials began discussions about conveying the property to the City for a park. Throughout the decade of the 1990s, U.S. Navy officials were gaining consensus up the chain-of-command to convey the Marshview property to the City for a park. After a general consensus was reached on the types of outdoor recreational uses that would be allowed on the site by U.S. Navy officials, a City capital project was funded to develop a conceptual park plan.