Posted on August 7, 2017
By Mechelle Hankerson, The Virginian-Pilot
A group of residents included in one of the city’s first special tax districts created to pay for neighborhood dredging wants its money back.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, six homeowners in Chesopeian Colony said the city “gerrymandered” the community to get enough support for a special tax that pays for clearing waterways near the neighborhood just west of Great Neck Road.
The residents, represented by Norfolk attorney S.W. Dawson, want the city to reimburse them $225,174 for taxes already paid into the program and $350,000 for punitive damages.
“They’re having this tax crammed down their throats by people who want to have boats,” Dawson said.
The average homeowner in Chesopeian Colony pays an extra $1,300, which is based on property value, so the city can dredge small offshoots of the Lynnhaven River along 122 properties.
Payments will last for 16 years, and the city is expected to complete three rounds of dredging in that time.
The residents named civic league member Frank Gurdziel, then-Deputy City Manager Dave Hansen, former coastal project manager Thomas Gay and water resources engineer Phill Roehrs in the lawsuit.
The men “conspired with each other to create an illegal, non-contiguous special-service district without a proper public hearing as required by law,” according to the lawsuit.
Virginia Beach is confident in the process it followed to create the Chesopeian Colony dredging district, said Christopher Boynton, a deputy city attorney. He declined to comment on the suit because it hadn’t been served on the city yet.
The City Council approved Chesopeian Colony’s district in 2013, but planning started in 2011.
An initial survey of homeowners fell short of the city’s required 80 percent approval rate. Under Virginia law, only 50 percent is needed to create a special service district.
At the time of approval, many residents who voted against being taxed for dredging said the process was rigged. Supporters and city officials said the boundaries were adjusted under the eye of a city attorney.
Cities in Virginia can create special tax districts to provide “additional, more complete or more timely services of government.”
A public hearing is required to start one, and a district’s boundaries can’t be changed once approved. In Virginia Beach, staff has redrawn boundaries after surveying residents about their interest but before the proposal has gone before the City Council.
Virginia Beach has seven special tax districts that pay for neighborhood dredging. More than 20 neighborhoods are in the process of considering one, and six have rejected being taxed.
One of those neighborhoods, Dix Park, is reconsidering, but opponents there say redrawing the boundary to include enough people to start a dredging district is inappropriate.
Source: The Virginian-Pilot
