Road project concerns Va. Beach business owners

VIRGINIA BEACH — A $30 million road improvement project could put the squeeze on several Oceanfront business owners who will lose parking spaces, but the city is forging ahead despite their concerns.

Virginia Beach plans to overhaul the eastern most end of Virginia Beach Boulevard, which turns into 17th Street at the Oceanfront. The project will widen the existing four travel lanes and add bike lanes and two 8-foot wide sidewalks on each side.

The first phase of the project will break ground in the fall of 2023 and will improve the corridor between Pacific and Cypress avenues, which is in the up-and-coming ViBe Creative District. The design will eliminate most of the improvised parking spaces businesses have been using in the city right-of-way area on the south side of the street.

“We’ve built our businesses around the use of this for 60 years, and now you’re going to cast us away?” asked Pete Nixon, who owns four lots in the 600 block of 17th Street.

Nixon’s father, Howard, opened Nixon Auto Sales on the land in 1960. The building is now home to Princess Anne Distributing Co., a bait and tackle shop. On most summer mornings, trucks hauling boats on trailers pull up in front to stock up on supplies for a day of fishing. That space will become a sidewalk when the new road is built.

Anthony Whitehurst, owner of the tackle shop, said that’s not his only beef with the project. He wonders why, if the ViBe Creative District is supposed to be pedestrian friendly, the city would want 17th Street to be a four-lane thoroughfare.

“There going to make this the gateway to funnel all the traffic,” Whitehurst said.

Josh Longacher, owner of Superior Pawn, said he will lose several spots where motorists park and is worried about speeding.

“If you make the road really wide, people will fly through,” Longacher said.

Leaders of the ViBe Creative District recently sent a letter to the city asking to reduce the traffic lanes from four to two with a central turning lane, like what was done on 19th Street last year.

“As an arts district, pedestrian-friendly streets are imperative to the access to public art, small businesses, and engaging community events,” wrote the ViBe’s Executive Director Kate Pittman in the letter.

Denis Osowara, the city’s project manager, plans to meet one-on-one with business owners soon to discuss the impacts. Osowara said this week that Virginia Beach Boulevard is “one major exit out of the Oceanfront, and that’s what people forget.”

He also said the Atlantic Park project coming to 19th Street will affect the flow of traffic out of the resort area and to the interstate, and that 17th Street will be needed for that overflow.

“19th is going to shut down where the wave park is going to be, and that’s going to change that street entirely,” Osowara said.

Councilman Guy Tower, who represents the Beach district, heard some of the concerns about parking and traffic during a meeting with the city and 17th Street business owners earlier this month.

“They’re going to lose some property that they really considered theirs; they know it’s not,” Tower said.

He added: “It’s going to be a nice street. People are going to want to shop there. I hope in the long run they will be very happy with the project.”