VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Department of Public Works is seeking feedback from Virginia Beach residents about flooding.
It’s an online survey that will be open through June 27.
Deputy City Manager Ron Williams overseas the public works department and told News 3 the survey is intended to give the city an idea of what residents want and a better understanding of whether its citizens are willing to pay for it.
“The city council will likely make a determination in July about whether or not to put a question on the ballot in November - asking the question of, 'Do you support us issuing this amount of millions of dollars of bonds in order to support the flood protection program?’”
Williams said the city puts out an annual citizens’ satisfaction survey; however, this is the first of its kind in a couple of years.
“Our flood protection program, as we’ve laid it out, is intended to be a long-term sustainable comprehensive program,” explained Williams. “But we have immediate needs due to recurrent flooding - mostly from rainfall - where we have undersized pipes or culverts that attach to the waterways, and so we need to go into those neighborhoods that have those critical recurrent flooding now and upsize the pipes, upsize the systems and the pump stations to get it to the external waterways.”
The survey asks a variety of questions, starting with how long the resident has lived in Virginia Beach. It asks them to rank their priority when it comes to the economy, reducing flood risks, sea level rise, air quality and roads/bridges.
Related: Virginia Beach ranks top for cities at serious risk of flooding in Virginia
It also states, “Funding for the proposed flood protection projects would come from an increase in real estate tax rates. How much would you be willing to pay for the city to implement proposed flood protection projects?” Answers vary from “no increase” to an increase of $263 annually.
“The revenue that we would be able to generate from a certain rate would give us the ability to leverage at the end of bonding to cover a certain package of infrastructure,” added Williams.
The survey can be located here. Residents can complete it now through June 27.
