A December virtual town hall that asked Virginia Beach residents to weigh in on designating a roadway to honor Martin Luther King Jr. has ended and the results are in: Nearly sixty-three percent of voters say no road in the city should be designated.
An email from City Manager Dave Hansen to city council said the town hall received 1,909 visitors and 1,592 responses. Of them, 452 registered their names and 1,140 did not. This equates to about 79 hours of public comment at three minutes per response, according to Hansen.
The prompt asked participants, “Should the City of Virginia Beach pay tribute to the late Martin Luther King Jr. by designating a roadway as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Highway? If so, which one?”
The results are:
- 9.5 percent – Virginia Beach Boulevard, from Pacific Avenue to Newtown Road (green on map)
- 7.3 percent – South Birdneck Road, from I-264 to General Booth Boulevard (pink on map)
- 4.3 percent – Independence Boulevard, from Virginia Beach Boulevard North to Shore Drive (blue on map)
- 9.9 percent – Diamond Springs Road, from Newtown Road to Shore Drive (orange on map)
- 6.2 percent – Other
- 62.6 percent – None
There are roadways in Hampton, Norfolk and Portsmouth designated as Martin Luther King Jr. memorial highways.
The virtual town hall isn’t a certified voting system, and the responses aren’t necessarily representative of the whole population, according to the town hall’s summary.
City spokesperson Julie Hill said a decision has not yet been made.
