VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Chances are you have seen the mountain of concrete at the gateway to Virginia Beach. That’s when you’re on Interstate 264 heading east towards the Oceanfront at Witchduck Road.
This case began when there was a complaint to the city calling the concrete pile an eyesore and a nuisance.
On Aug. 8, we chased down businessman Mark Calcagni to ask him about his concrete mountain. On Tuesday, Virginia Beach stepped back due to a technicality.
“The first summons we issued was to him as a person, so the city asked to amend the summons and that motion was denied by the judge, and we are going to re-isssue a new summons to Mr. Calcagni as the violation still exists,” said Virginia Beach Zoning Administrator Kevin Kemp
The first summons had Mark Calcagni’s name on it, and not the name of his company, Witchduck Real Property. A new summons will be issued. “We are not walking away from this, absolutely not. We were out on the site yesterday, and the violations that we were coming to court for still exist.”
Calcagni’s attorney Carl Eason did not want to do an interview, but Calcagni has told us the city knew what the concrete pile looked like for years and said nothing about it until the summons appeared. “That doesn’t make that right. A violation still exists we will try to bring him in to compliance,” Kemp said.
The city says the major violation is that the concrete towers well over 15 feet, the height allowed under the modification of the special use permit which Calcagni will argue expired. Kemp counters, “The staff disagrees and the staff still believes that property is guided by the condition of that use permit.”
Kemp says Calcagni has reached out and says he wants to comply, but it is clear no progress has been made to reduce the size of the concrete mountain. “We see any efforts that have been made are minimal at this point and haven’t been noticed,” Kemp said.
Calcagni was apparently out of town and could not be served the new summons. We are told he has reached out to the city, but the city says so far no progress has been made to cut the mountain to size.