"Like many cities, Virginia Beach has set a goal to become a sustainable city...To achieve this vision, we need real ideas, real steps, and real solutions..." ~ Mayor William D. Sessoms' Vision Statement
What is Sustainability?
The traditional definition of sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Learn more...
Why Sustainability in Virginia Beach?
- Multiple renewable energy resource opportunities e.g., wind, biodiesel
- Unique, strategically critical geographic location
- Strong military and maritime industry in region
- Favorable climate
- Unique natural and historic resources
- Strong agricultural base
- Naturally attractive location connected to the natural environment
- Established and expanding tourism destination
- Strong educational base with tremendous further potential
What is the Sustainability Plan?
Virginia Beach is embarking on an exciting process to imagine what the City will be like in the year 2063 – when Virginia Beach celebrates its 100th anniversary as a City. This vision of the future, though, is going to be filtered through a process of looking at policies and strategies to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and aspirations.
The Sustainability Plan will be just that: a very unique means to document in a report how the City can change over time - with implementable recommendations and suggested ways to benchmark the City’s progress – to be a healthy, viable, balanced, strong, successful, safe, livable, and stable community as we celebrate our 100th birthday and launch into our second century.
The City has adopted many plans to help guide and direct its future; among them are the Comprehensive Plan, Bikeways and Trails Plan, Outdoors Plan – and most of these other plans have a focus on a particular issue, topic or geographic area of the City.
The Sustainability Plan is intended to be unique and exemplary from these other plans because it is focused on how to integrate all these other plans and policies with additional new ideas into one vision. The Sustainability Plan will focus on three major areas – environmental stewardship, economic vitality, and social responsibility. As it is developed with input from citizens, City staff and community stakeholders, the Plan will be organized around these three major areas. These three and potential sub-areas of focus are illustrated in the Sustainable City Model diagram.
Sustainability Plan Process
Get Involved
To jumpstart the Plan process, the City’s Environment and Sustainability Office will be hosting a series of
eight public input meetings – one for each voting district and an additional meeting for the rural area of the City. These meetings will give a more complete overview of the process for developing the Plan, discuss what the City already has in place or underway as it relates to its policies, plans and vision, and then provide participants an opportunity to provide their suggestions on specific ideas or topics that they believe should be considered as the Plan is developed. The
Public Input Meetings Schedule provides information about these meetings. To review the public input comments, please follow this
link.
Plan Integration
In addition to the Public Input Meetings, the Plan process will include a Steering Committee, several staff Focus Groups, and a follow-up series of public workshop meetings that will be scheduled to receive input and feedback on the draft Plan once it is developed.
The Sustainability Plan will build upon the work of other plans and policies. Emphasis will be placed on integrating the work of City and community efforts, such as
Envision 2040, the
Hampton Roads Partnership, the City’s
Strategic Planning Process, and other initiatives.
American Institute of Architects (AIA) Sustainability Assessment
In 2009, the City was chosen by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to participate in 
their Sustainability Design Assessment Team (SDAT) program. For three days, the design and planning professionals worked collaboratively with local officials, community leaders, technical experts, and citizens. During those three days, the team used their expertise to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Virginia Beach with regards to sustainability, opportunities and obstacles to change. Also, a wide range of recommendations were presented to the community in a public meeting on September 16, 2009. To access the SDAT report, click here.
This is a work in progress, so please feel free to
contact us with your comments and suggestions.