New Virginia Beach voting districts divide Oceanfront resort area, raise questions
New voting districts in Virginia Beach divide the Oceanfront resort area for the first time in city history, raising questions about how the change will affect tourism policy-making in the future.
“It was a situation that was imposed on us that we have to deal with,” said Mayor Bobby Dyer, who will return to the dais Tuesday after recovering from heart surgery last month. “We’re going to have to go through a learning curve with this.”
A federal judge approved the new map, drawn by a political science professor at the University of California at Irvine. It establishes 10 voting districts across the city to replace the at-large election system for City Council members that was previously declared illegal and discriminatory. Virginia Beach is appealing the ruling.
Voters only will be allowed to cast ballots for council candidates in the district where they live. The mayor will continue to be chosen by voters throughout the city.
For decades, the resort area has been represented by one voice on the City Council. On the new map, the boundary between Districts 5 and 6 at the Oceanfront cuts through the middle of 17th Street from the beach to Mediterranean Avenue.
“They split the baby,” said George Kotarides, who owns a pizza restaurant on the dividing line.
Kotarides helped start the Atlantic Avenue Association, a community advocacy group that has worked to improve the resort area’s main thoroughfare, in part, with help from current Beach district representative Guy Tower.
Going forward, the association will need to bend the ear of a second Oceanfront representative.
“Anytime you have two individuals, you’re going to have two sets of priorities and agendas,” Kotarides said. “It’s going to be very interesting.”
BJ Baumann, a resort area restaurateur and chairwoman of the Resort Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations to City Council, is focusing on the possible benefits.
“Having two representatives that represent the resort district is not necessarily a bad thing,” Baumann said. “It’s two voices advocating for our industries and our neighborhoods.”
Tower likes the idea of another person in the City Council chambers who will spotlight resort area issues.
“Having two people with a stake in it could be helpful,” said Tower, who is up for reelection this year in District 6 but declined to say whether he’ll run. “I sometimes felt alone.”
Mark DesRoches, president of the 17th Street Gateway Association, is curious about how a new district representative will address infrastructure improvements along the aging corridor. The City Council approved upgrades to the east end of 17th Street, but funding hasn’t been allocated yet for the west end to Birdneck Road.
“I have more questions than answers,” DesRoches said. “We’re going to have two council people with constituents on both sides. Is that good or bad? I don’t know.”
Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson lives in the South End and will represent District 5, which includes Rudee Loop. Being “open to ideas” and communication between representatives will be key, she said.
“It would be important for those two people to work closely together,” said Wilson.
Baumann just wants the new voting system to spur collaboration, not division.
“I hope we don’t get into every man for himself,” Baumann said. “We have to have representatives that will look at what’s good for the city as a whole, not just their district.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
