Virginia Beach program focuses on neighborhood revitalization.(News & Numbers)

The City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, strives to be a Community for a Lifetime. To this end, the City Council has added neighborhood revitalization as one of its key goals, based on the assumption that vibrant neighborhoods lead to a high quality of life. The city is embarking on the PREmier Homes and Neighborhoods program (the "PRE" is for preserving, renewing, and enhancing).

In late 2005, the City Council asked the Planning Commission to recommend amendments to the city's development ordinances that would help preserve the character and value of neighborhoods and housing, and assist in their preservation and enhancement. In early 2007, five recommendations were made: establishing tax incentives for home owners that promote reinvestment; establishing renovation guidelines that would be tailored to specific neighborhoods; establishing a "design center" to provide home owners and builders with assistance, promoting renovation that is compatible with the look of a given neighborhood; providing home owners with information and help in obtaining financing and design assistance; and adopting a "Comprehensive Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy" to ensure this kind of assistance would be ongoing.

This project is based on the idea that preservation is a good investment, and that citizens will voluntarily undertake effective means of preservation--with a little help from government. "Intervention to prevent decline is far more cost-effective than allowing

decline to occur and then addressing it," according to Preserving, Renewing, and Enhancing Housing and Neighborhoods in Virginia Beach, the city's housing and neighborhood preservation plan. City officials feel that Virginia Beach will receive direct and indirect economic benefits by encouraging preservation, including: a ripple effect of increased home improvement efforts, as individuals see their neighbors making improvements; reduced energy costs; additional employment opportunities, as more people get more work done to their homes; increased revenue from permits, fees, and licenses, as well as increased sales tax revenue from the sale of materials used in home improvement; and fewer expenses for crime prevention and code enforcement.

Citizen participation is vital to Virginia Beach's plan." Individual neighborhoods understand best how to direct their own futures and how to create connections, identity, responsiveness, and neighborhood health," the preservation plan explains. One of the city's major roles in this initiative is helping citizens and neighborhood organizations get information. Preservation guidelines, in conjunction with tax incentives for rehabilitation, encourage citizens to upgrade existing housing in ways that are consistent with the character of their neighborhoods. Virginia Beach is working on Internet resources for storing photos and collecting data. A major component is the "Pattern Book," an online resource depicting the styles and types of houses in neighborhoods throughout the city. The Pattern Book will help residents make more informed decisions about renovations by including design recommendations and information about subjects such a building setbacks and design options including eco-friendly and handicapped-accessible alternatives. Plan books would also be developed "to provide a cohesive and comprehensive design outlook for a desiring community."

The city has a tax abatement structured to provide incentives for significantly improving residential properties in connection with established design guidelines. The preservation plan indicates that the tax abatement plan: should offer taxpayers an opportunity to improve residential structures and not pay full taxes on those improvements for 10 years; commence at the beginning of the tax year immediately after the rehabilitation is completed and the city has recognized that all requirements have been met; and delay recognition by 10 years, for tax purposes, of the increase in assessed value the improvements create.

Preserving, Renewing, and Enhancing Housing and Neighborhoods in Virginia Beach is available online at http://www. vbgov.com/file_source/dept/housing/D ocument/PreservationInitiative/HNP%2 0Plan-FINAL.pdf.

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