VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The design and planning team for the future park at Rudee Loop in Virginia Beach was introduced before Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday.
Council moved last fall to transfer $4 million from the Tourism Investment Program to procure the design services.
The team, composed of several firms and led by Virginia Beach-based Dills Architects, talked about how they aspire to make the 8-acre site at the southern end of the Oceanfront a “world-class destination” and “iconic” park, designed with the community in mind.
They talked about the human connections to the site, including the ties to the water by surfers and fishermen, and those who comes to see the views.
“If there’s one thing our design team has to do, it’s a must do for our team, is that we have to progress the design, public input, and engagement together,” said Clay Dills with Dills Architects, whose team designed the Virginia Beach mass shooting memorial.
Dills said they’re building on past public engagement for the site, including a 2023 survey that showed city residents overwhelmingly supported making the site a public park. That includes enlisting the help of former councilmember Delceno Miles. She and her company, The Miles Agency, are leading community engagement for the project.
“This is about creating spaces that inspire and nurture community life, right? We want to make a park that is for everyone, that is welcoming, and a place that everyone in all your districts wants to be,” said Pippa Brashear, resilience principal with SCAPE, the lead landscape architect for the project.
Highlighting the water, on three sides of Rudee Loop, and the ocean views are a priority, the designers say. That also includes building resiliency to climate change, such as steeped shorelines and lifted recreational areas.
Brashear and SCAPE pointed to their work to help create the new Tom Lee Park in Downtown Memphis, which reopened in 2023 after a three-year, $61 million renovation. The waterfront park on the Mississippi River features a “sunset canopy” for basketball, weddings and other events.
SCAPE’s also helped design a five-acre green space in San Francisco across from the Giants’ stadium called China Basin Park. The “very complicated land-use deal” that was 15 years in the making turned into “a new gem by the bay,” per an article in the San Francisco Standard.
ESDA, which worked with the Virginia Gentleman Foundation on a submission for the site back in 2022, is also part of the team. They’ve designed major projects like the Bluewaters Island in Dubai and Vinhomes Central Park in Vietnam.
Meanwhile BRV (Bierderman Redevelopment Ventures) talked about ways Rudee Loop could potentially cover operating expenses down the road like New York City’s Bryant Park.
Council also heard from Miles, who’s leading the community outreach effort. She says they’re looking to work on getting youth and their families involved. That includes going to youth sports organizations, local schools and colleges, civic groups and faith-based organizations, and historically underserved communities like Seatack and Gracetown.
They also want the outreach to be city-wide.
“We want to make sure we go where the public is,” Miles said. “That’s what’s important. It’s great to have public meetings and hope people show up. But those days are gone. We need to go and have interactive displays and exhibits.”
That public input will continue into next year, the design team says, before final designs are submitted to be presented and approved. Council would still have to OK the final design.
So far, the city’s programmed $60 million in its capital improvement program for the site, which includes $49 million for construction and $5 million for contingencies. It’s set to be repaid through revenue through the city’s Tourism Investment Program (TIP).
One of the big aspects of the project still up in the air is a parking garage planned for the space, something a fairly significant number of respondents in the survey said they didn’t want.
Though that’s something council members say will most likely be needed to make it accessible for everyone in the city.
Councilman Chris Taylor says he’s concerned about the potential total project cost, and asked the team for the potential operating costs and revenue annually for the site, in pointing out some of the examples of operating models presented were different from Rudee. For example, there are no plans for high-end apartments and retail like in New York City.
“The public doesn’t want [high-end apartments and retail]. We have not as a council welcomed a developer back here that owns an adjacent parcel that wants to put apartments, so that doesn’t really align with what the public’s asking for. So are we building something that we don’t know how much it’s really going to cost?”
Councilwoman Barbara Henley, who voted against the design funding, says she’s still a skeptic of the project. She said she wants to keep the space as open space after hearing from constituents over the years. Though she doesn’t want that route to come with a big city investment.
“I envisioned open space, maybe stick out a few trees or something … all these years I’ve heard people say we can no longer see the ocean because we locked it off, but here’s our one place that we can still see the ocean … I’m a cheapskate. And I just can’t see whatever it is, how many million dollars has been allocated for this and having it be open.”
Councilman Joash Schulman said “I’ll be your optimist.”
“The focus on resiliency, the understanding that there’s a strong desire to keep vistas and views of the ocean unobstructed. To create an inviting space for people to visit this community and residents who live here,” Schulman said.
This all comes after years of talks about what to do with the Rudee Loop property, which was purchased by the city in 2004 for $7 million. Longtime restauranter Robert Herman, who just died on Saturday at the age of 88, used to operate the famed Lighthouse restaurant at the site.
Council and the design team are still looking for more input, including from surfers and fishermen, who use the space currently. You can watch the full presentation from Tuesday’s council meeting here and get more information on the project here.