VIRGINIA BEACH — Do you have ideas about how to improve or enhance your visit to Atlantic Avenue?
Via the online “Activate Atlantic Avenue” survey the city is giving residents (or even visitors) a chance to have a say and share ideas about making the oceanfront strip better – especially during the offseason when locals may be more likely to frequent the businesses there.
“We are interested in public sentiment and knowing why they don’t travel to Atlantic Avenue in the offseason,” said Kathy Warren, Strategic Growth Areas manager with the City of Virginia Beach.
Warren said last year the city began working with the Atlantic Avenue Association to identify the reasons why locals don’t frequent the area more in the off season, and how they could work together to make the area “more attractive” to people.
The online survey will be up through July 16.
In it, respondents are asked a variety of questions, such as where they live, how often they visit the Atlantic Avenue area, why they visit, and how they get there. Likewise, they can suggest attractions they’d like to see and what would attract them to Atlantic Avenue as well as what they don’t want changed.
“We want them to fill out the survey,” Warren said. “The more information we gather the better.”
One of the pilot projects the city tried during the last offseason was allowing parking on Atlantic Avenue between Nov. 1 and March 31.
Warren said that is likely to happen again this off season, but that the signage will be improved and more permanent, and residents will be informed in advance.
Also, some bicyclists had concerns about the parking signage/markers because they were in the lane bikers usually travel in and created an obstacle for riders. Warren said the city is working to identify a lane for bike riders.
“We’ll put a lot of thought into all of the responses,” Warren said, adding that the survey questions that receive a high percentage of similar answers will be looked at most closely.
