Virginia Beach to consider rezoning farm land for medical manufacturing company

VIRGINIA BEACH — A large medical product manufacturing company could be coming to Virginia Beach, but it will require the city to rezone up to 250 acres of farm land to industrial.

The company, which the city has not named, would invest as much as $500 million and hire a minimum of 400 people.

“An exciting project if we have a site that is appropriate to locate it,” Taylor Adams, director of the city’s economic development department, told the City Council Tuesday.

Residents will have a chance to weigh in on the proposed rezoning at a public hearing May 16.

A map of the Interfacility Traffic Area in Virginia Beach, between Naval Air Station Oceana and Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in Chesapeake. (courtesy City of Virginia Beach)

A state economic development team brought the project to the city, Adams said. It could be expanded in three phases.

He referred to it using the code name “Project Wayne,” and said the city is competing with other localities.

City-owned land currently being farmed would work for a project of its size, Adams said. The land is in the Interfacility Traffic Area (formerly the Transition Area), which is between Naval Air Station Oceana and Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in Chesapeake, where suburban development shifts to rural.

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Project Wayne would be built adjacent to Virginia Beach National Golf Club, just south of the “Green Line,” an urban-growth boundary established by the city in 1979. The goal of the Green Line is to concentrate development in the north part of the city and protect agricultural land in the south.

Councilman Worth Remick asked if there was any private land that could be considered for the project. Adams said none has been identified that could accommodate future phases of development.

Councilwoman Barbara Henley, who represents the district, pointed out how past Virginia Beach city councils have valued the city’s agricultural industry and her concerns about industrial use on land that’s prone to flooding.

“It hurts every time we have these discussions‚ when we just say, ‘Well, it’s just agriculture, so we can get a whole lot more money if we get another use in here,’” she said. “Now, other industries do produce more taxes, they also require a heck of a lot more in infrastructure.”

Mayor Bobby Dyer said he wants to move forward with “guarded optimism.”

“The bottom line is, whether we like it or not, we’re running out of land in Virginia Beach,” he said. “It’s essential that we create some additional revenue streams that could possibly help relieve some of the residential tax burden on people.”

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com