VIRGINIA BEACH — If in the coming months you’re in the northern part of Virginia Beach and you see people on the streets taking notes while looking around and taking photographs of something besides the ocean or the bay, don’t panic and don’t call the police.
It could very well be people acting on the city’s behalf as Virginia Beach undertakes a survey of potentially historic properties and structures.
Mark Reed, historic planner for the city, said they’ve contracted with Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. to do a “reconnaissance level” survey of the city to identify architectural resources.
“There are several reasons for the city to perform this survey,” Reed said. “It has been 25 years since the last reconnaissance level surveys were performed in Virginia Beach. Since the general threshold for buildings and structures is 50 years of age, many more resources in the city are eligible to be included than in the early 1990s.”
He said they will be surveying about 50 neighborhoods in the northern half of the city, with the goal of identifying an additional 100 individual resources, which will help them build on information the city and the Commonwealth of Virginia already have.
“Virginia Beach primarily developed as neighborhoods in the mid-20th century and they will be looking at neighborhoods for their architectural qualities, consistency of character and integrity of construction and design,” he added.
Reed said the Code of Virginia requires localities to maintain an inventory of historic architectural resources as part of the general requirements for comprehensive community planning.
In addition, Virginia Beach was designated as a Certified Local Government in 2016. That National Park Service program promotes and supports historic preservation in local communities, as well as requiring CLGs to maintain up-to-date surveys of historic resources.
“Having current survey information is a beneficial planning tool that helps us see the distribution of historic resources around the city and to understand the nature of those resources,” he said. “With that information we can work to better preserve and maintain the community’s historic identity and character.”
But it isn’t only about big old homes.
“The survey is about the built environment, which is everything from infrastructure, houses, stores, and factories, to support buildings like garages, stables, barns, and even pump stations,” Reed said. “It’s also about both the individual resource and any grouping of resources that exhibit interrelationships and shared or similar characteristics.”
Neighborhoods, commercial districts, industrial sections and even mixed-use areas are of interest because of how they developed historically, how they functioned, and what they contributed to the community.
Those doing the survey will have letters from Reed identifying them and explaining the survey. He said citizens should understand that the city is simply making a record of architectural resources that are representative of the city’s history and development.
The surveyors will not be coming onto private property.
Residents can be of significant help with the survey.
“We are hopeful that local residents can assist us with their knowledge of buildings and structures that may be off the beaten path or might have an association with a prominent person that is important to the city’s history, like Sidney Kellam, or even the nation’s history, like Alan B. Shephard,” he said. “The sharing of their collective knowledge by our residents about interesting and lesser known buildings and structures will help us to identify a greater number and broader spectrum of resources than we would without their input.”
The Virginia Beach Planning and Community Development Department will host a public information session concerning the architectural survey project on Thursday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m., in the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library auditorium.
