The city of Virginia Beach’s development authority dropped $2.8 million for land at the Oceanfront this week, continuing its campaign to increase the footprint of the surf park project on the old dome site.

An Exxon gas station, which closed this week and will soon be torn down, sits on the land at the eastern end of Virginia Beach Boulevard. The property is slated for future development but can temporarily be used for parking for construction workers during the first phase of the project, Deputy City Manager Ron Williams said.

The Atlantic Park project, backed by music superstar Pharrell Williams, will include an entertainment center, commercial and residential buildings and the surf park.

Construction parking has been a sensitive issue lately for Oceanfront residents. Neighbors of the Cavalier hotel and related construction projects at the beach’s north end have complained about construction workers flooding the residential streets with their vehicles.

Now, Virginia Beach leaders say they’ll take proactive steps to ensure that the crews working at the surf park project won’t do the same in the south end.

W.M. Jordan Co. of Newport News is the Atlantic Park’s general contractor and the same company that restored and built the hotels on the Cavalier property. The contractor is required to provide a construction parking plan before the work can begin, Williams said.

Atlantic Park will break ground in the first quarter of 2022 and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2023, said Mike Culpepper, a managing partner in the project’s development company, Venture Realty Group.

Members of the Resort Beach Civic League recently met with Culpepper to discuss their concerns about parking and traffic issues.

“There is already a shortage of convenient, safe, and sustainable parking for employees and visitors,” the civic league board wrote in a statement on the project.

In December, the city negotiated to buy other land at the corner of 18th Street and Arctic Avenue from Norfolk Southern for $2.8 million, and to pay $3.7 million to help Dominion Energy shut down and relocate equipment on the land.

In related news, the Atlantic Park developers are seeking the City Council’s approval for several aspects of the project that will deviate from city code, including the buildings’ proximity to the street and the height of a parking deck. The planning commission will hear the applications on July 14 and make recommendations to the council, which will vote in August.

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