Cost to build Virginia Beach flood protections has nearly doubled to more than $1 billion

VIRGINIA BEACH — Windsor Woods resident Bob Jennings woke up in the middle of the night as Hurricane Matthew pummeled Virginia Beach in 2016. He saw water rising toward his house.

Jennings had lived there for 30 years, and it had never flooded. He started to put towels by the front door, but then water started coming through the walls.

“There was water all behind me,” Jennings said. “It got worse and worse.”

Hurricane Matthew dropped as much as 14 inches of rain in some areas of the city and Windsor Woods, which sits in a low-lying area, was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods. The storm damaged 1,400 homes, and prompted Virginia Beach to invest in a structural defense network to protect against severe coastal flood risks.

Work on some of those projects, including tide gates to protect Windsor Woods, is already underway. But the estimated cost to tackle the first phase of projects has nearly doubled — to more than $1 billion — raising questions about how the city will pay for it.

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Cost of the project

Voters approved a $567.5 million stormwater bond referendum in 2021 to raise real estate taxes to help fund drainage improvements, tide gates, pump stations and flood barriers throughout the city. Also known as “The Ripple Effect,” the 10-year plan is designed to address recurrent flooding in Virginia Beach.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on its first bond sale for the Flood Protection Program projects. The bond sale is planned for May 14, according to city documents.

With real estate tax assessments on the rise in recent years, the city has not had to raise rates to cover the cost of projects and maintained a 99 cent tax rate per $100 of assessed value. The rate includes 4 cents that is dedicated to flood protection, equal to nearly $32 million annually. An additional 2.5 cents supports stormwater engineering and operations within the General Fund.

The total cost of the Flood Protection Program has increased to more than $1 billion as the result of hikes in material and labor. Meanwhile Hampton Roads has several large-scale construction projects underway leading to a short supply of contractors and heftier contract prices, according to the city.

The City Council will be briefed on the Flood Protection Program funding shortfalls later this year, city staff has said. To date, no additional bonds beyond the initial $567.5 million are programmed in the Capital Improvement Program.

How the city will pay for the rising price of flooding protection now that it’s estimated to cost nearly twice the amount of the bond referendum remains to be seen.

“Ultimately it is a determination that will be made by City Council as a matter (of) the routine budget process,” city spokesperson Sam Wells wrote in an email.

Roughly $45 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and $60 million in other federal and state grants are currently augmenting projects. The city has added dozens of full-time positions for stormwater engineering, maintenance and repairs.

And a flood protection oversight board, which meets monthly and provides regular updates to the City Council, first convened in 2022. Chairman Jeff Waller said the board’s aware of cost increases but any future funding decision will fall on the City Council’s shoulders.

Councilman Worth Remick, who serves as the board liaison, said his colleagues have begun to consider options to cover the growing price tag.

“I’ve floated the idea of doing it over 12 years instead of 10 years,” said Remick. “Other thoughts are, you kick back the scale, but I’m not a fan of that. The other thought is to increase the bond amount.”

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Projects underway

“When Matthew hit, we didn’t necessarily have a very good understanding of how those kinds of storms could impact the city of Virginia Beach,” said Leisha Pica, an engineer for Jacobs Engineering Group, at a March council meeting. “Since then, we’ve done a lot of work.”

While many of the planned projects are still in the engineering and design phases, some are underway including construction of four tide gates where Thalia Creek flows into Lake Windsor next to Mount Trashmore.

The tide gates are designed to protect three neighborhoods in the center of the city: Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaza and The Lakes. The area is influenced by the tides of the Chesapeake Bay which move through the Lynnhaven River and into Thalia Creek which is connected to Lake Windsor and Lake Trashmore.

“You got to stop the tide from coming in, and you’ve got to pump the water out,” said Mike Mundy, city stormwater program manager.

When significant rain is anticipated, the tide gates will close at low tide to prevent tidal water from flowing into Lake Windsor and Lake Trashmore. Pumps will be used to maintain the water level in the lakes behind the gates and provide needed storage for rainwater.

“As much storage as we can get we want because it can keep it (water) out of people’s houses,” Mundy said.

Two of the four Windsor Woods gates have been installed, and the project is expected to be completed next year.

An Old Dominion University study of the project in 2020 estimated that the gates may need to be closed between five and eight times a year, and Lake Windsor would need to be pumped down to increase storage 24 to 48 hours prior before a storm.

Another major project is underway to mitigate flooding for Windsor Woods and the surrounding flood-prone neighborhoods. Bow Creek Stormwater Park, where a former municipal golf course was located, is being excavated to be able to capture and manage a large amount of rainfall from storms. The park will eventually feature recreational amenities including walking paths, a kayak launch, pickleball courts, a playground and mountain bike trails.

In the years since Hurricane Matthew rocked Windsor Woods, residents are still haunted by the experience of having water inundate their homes. Jennings has worked to educate himself about the science behind flooding and volunteers as chair of his civic league’s flooding committee.

“Me, like most of the other people in the neighborhood, never fully recovered from it,” Jennings said. “We don’t want to see that again.”

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com

Virginia Beach Flood Protection by the numbers:

• $567 million in general obligation bonds will be issued

• 7 master project areas encompassed by the city’s Flood Protection Program

• 30 projects grouped within the seven master project areas

• $59 million in state and federal grant funding for flood protection awarded to Virginia Beach since 2020

• $44 million in American Rescue Program Act funds applied

• 8 tide gates planned, designed, under construction or completed

• 11 stormwater pump stations planned, designed, under construction or completed

• 8 miles of new stormwater pipes

• 3 miles of channel/ditch improvements

• 15,400 cubic yards of dredging from ditches and canals

• 3 bridges and road elevation projects

• 8,200 linear feet of flood barriers to be constructed

Source: City of Virginia Beach