Hampton’s legislative wish list includes expanded use of traffic cameras

Hampton drivers who ignore traffic signs better watch out, as the city is seeking additional authority to use photo-monitoring systems to enforce traffic violations.

Wednesday afternoon, the Hampton City Council met with state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, at the Hampton Yacht Club to outline the city’s legislative requests and priorities for the upcoming Virginia General Assembly session.

Hampton hopes to utilize photo-monitoring systems at any intersection negatively impacted by traffic from the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. State law allows localities to issue tickets of $50 for red-light traffic violations but council wants to be able to enforce other types of violations too.

The proposed legislation would allow Hampton and Norfolk to use photo-monitoring systems to enforce other violations, such as drivers ignoring “no right turn” signs or motorists blocking intersections.

The expanded authority to photo-monitor roads would only be in place while the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project is underway, Hampton legislative liaison Ed Reed said after the meeting. The project, scheduled for completion in November 2025, will widen the four-lane sections along nearly ten miles of the I-64 corridor in Norfolk and Hampton, with new tunnels across the harbor.

Hampton spokesperson Robin McCormick said the city has explored red-light cameras in the past, but has not implemented any.

Another request was to allow the city to require property owners to register any building as vacant that has been unoccupied for 12 months or more. The city has encountered squatters living in houses that out-of-state owners believed to be vacant, Reed reported in the meeting. Some of the houses have been involved in shootings. By requiring them to be registered, Reed said police would know whether anyone should be inside the building.

“It allows the city to know this building, this address is vacant, so if a police call comes in, they know no one’s supposed to be in there,” Reed told the Daily Press. “And what was happening is that people are in those buildings, and the police don’t know if it’s some vacant property.”

Locke said she introduced legislation for a vacant building registry in previous sessions but it failed to get a supermajority vote. Locke told the council she would try to shore up the votes needed to get the legislation to pass this time.

The council also requested that the General Assembly:

• Provide grant funding for flood resilience and the ability to adapt to climate change

• Support the city’s ability to maintain local authority over land use and zoning decisions — including the regulation of short-term rentals.

• Fund education initiatives

• Refrain from passing unfunded mandates

• Fund the department of historic resources for African American cemeteries

• Provide state assistance to aid police who have to guard and transport people who have emergency custody orders or temporary detention orders. As of October 2022, Hampton police have spent over 11,000 hours on ECO and TDO custody and transport, diverting officers from their police work in the community.

Cordoza said he is on the public safety committee and could help advance legislation to provide state assistance to police dealing with TDOs.

City Manager Mary Bunting said she would like the General Assembly to address gun violence and homicides “because we are all alarmed at the rates.” In particular, she said she would like to see conflict resolution skills incorporated into the public school curriculum.

“We’re finding that a lot of the homicides or shootings result from two people who know each other pretty well actually, and they might get along well most of the time, but they get in an argument, they pull a gun,” Bunting said. “And learning how to defuse conflict and really not immediately react with anger or pulling a gun is something that we think is really, really important.”

Locke and Cordoza said legislation to expand mental health services and resources would be a significant focus this year. The General Assembly session will kick off Jan. 11.

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com