VIRGINIA BEACH
To William “Jimmy” Olds, Seatack is more than just one of the oldest African American communities in the country.
It’s home. And it has been for generation after generation of his family.
The street where he lives, Olds Lane, is named for his grandfather. And there was a time when his relatives occupied every single house on it.
Olds worries that someday the neighborhood near the Oceanfront, settled by free blacks more than two centuries ago, will be nothing but a memory because of forces beyond residents’ control.
“Eventually, Seatack will be gone,” Olds, 69, said sitting in his living room. “Maybe not in my lifetime, but it will be gone.”
Seatack sits east of Oceana Naval Air Station and abuts the convention center at 19th Street and the site for the planned sports and entertainment arena. Stretching east and west along North Birdneck Road, the neighborhood includes churches, a city recreation center, a park and some businesses.
But its proximity to the air base is what sowed the seeds for Seatack’s fate.
In 2005, a federal commission looking at consolidating military bases around the country said that Oceana could be forced to close if Virginia Beach did not halt housing development near the base and clear more than 3,400 existing homes and businesses in high-risk crash zones.
The city took the threat to the base seriously. And that meant big changes for neighborhoods nearby.
Olds Lane is about a mile east of the base in a designated crash zone for military planes, with the loudest jet noise in the city.
Zoning Administrator Kevin Kemp said this explains why the city has been quick to approve the rezoning of residential lots in Seatack for certain industrial or commercial uses. As a result, the neighborhood’s residential character has been eroding for a decade.
In 2006, park to be built at the end of the Olds Lane cul-de-sac and stretching to Bells Road.
Now, a self-storage business will be built on Bells Road behind Olds’ property on land that used to have three vacant homes. The site could have accommodated at least three single-family homes without upsetting the Navy, Kemp said. But the city doesn’t think that’s a compatible use these days for land near the businesses along Bells Road.
What’s more, deploying service members create a strong demand for storage units nearby – there are already more than 20 facilities around Oceana. And Seatack is also close to Oceanfront condos whose residents also need extra storage space, Kemp said.
Community activist Andrew Jackson said he thinks that the city wants to keep expanding the Oceanfront, and that Seatack is the easiest place to locate businesses that other, richer neighborhoods would reject.
He pointed out that significant parts of Seatack are in a potential zone for jet crashes, which puts it at risk to lose even more residential space.
“What do you do?” Jackson said at a City Council meeting. “Get rid of the neighborhood?”
For Christine and Chris Douglass, the answer is to leave.
The couple moved to Olds Lane in May 2015. Afterward, they spent more than $20,000 renovating the interior of what they thought would be their dream home. They updated their kitchen and installed new wooden flooring throughout.
They loved the tall trees behind the fence in their backyard, where they often spend time on the deck with their dogs.
Soon after the City Council approved the zoning change for the storage units, the Douglasses put their home on the market. A newly constructed house next door is also for sale, and recently, the price dropped by $10,000, according to Zillow, a real estate website.
“We put a lot of work into the house, but we want to get out while we can,” Christine Douglass said. “We’ve made our peace with it.”
Ryan Powell has owned Birdneck Self Storage, which is open 24 hours, on the corner of South Birdneck and Bells roads for more than 30 years.
In 2015, he decided to expand his business and bought more land on Bells Road next to and behind the homes on Bells and Olds Lane.
Powell said the property was not being maintained and required extensive cleanup. The houses on the property were abandoned and infested with rodents, Powell said. They were torn down in mid-April.
Trees bordered the property, so residents who live on Olds Lane were somewhat shielded from the blight.
Eddie Bourdon, Powell’s attorney, said Bells Road hasn’t been predominately residential for many years. Besides the warehouse and a laundry facility, the Navy owns 165 acres on the eastern portion of the road and the city owns a dredging facility.
“It is not residential, it is not going to be residential, and it is just a pipe dream to suggest otherwise,” Bourdon told the Planning Commission in July 2016. “We do need to protect Olds Lane, and this application does protect Olds Lane.”
Seatack Civic League President George Minns said his neighborhood has been treated differently than other Oceanfront communities. Four self-storage businesses line a nearly 2-mile stretch of Birdneck Road. The new storage units would be the first on the east side of Birdneck, tucked beside houses.
The Planning Commission did not recommended the new facility despite city planning staff signing off on it. Right after Minns spoke against the Birdneck Self Storage facility, the City Council approved changing the zoning from residential to light industrial.
Kemp said it is rare for the Planning Commission to go against the city staff’s recommendation and for council members to disagree with the commission.
But “in that area, it is pretty common to change the zoning,” he said. “When you are in noise or crash zones, we usually support changing the zoning to industrial.”
Now just three homes will remain on Bells Road. Going back 10 years, the block used to have seven, Ron Agnor, assistant city real estate assessor said. Birdneck Self Storage will be required to plant trees to create a buffer between its garages and the houses.
Resident Thomi Gill, 40, said she and her Bells Road neighbors have been left out of the conversation. Her property shares a border with the land where the storage units will be built.
“I wanted a relaxing, quiet space,” she said. “I feel like that is going to be gone now.”
Gill and her family chose the street because the properties had more land, giving the area a country feel inside the city. Now, she is feeling trapped and worries she won’t be able to sell her home for what it’s worth down the road.
“It is an uneasy feeling,” she said. “Even though they are going to plant trees, a storage facility is not something you want to be a neighbor to.”
Scott Sonier, 50, and his two children moved to the block in 2004, just as the street behind his house started becoming more industrial.
He lives close enough to Oceana that he can see the faces of the pilots who fly overhead, he said, but the jet noise doesn’t bother him.
Sonier wanted the city to keep the land with the abandoned houses behind his house residential. He has opposed all zoning changes in the area and at a council meeting recently spoke against Birdneck Self Storage’s request to build seven single-story buildings.
He’s worried about the quality of life for his family and the potential for his property’s value to drop.
The storage units will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the week and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.
“To me, it is like no unencumbered time without people coming and going into the storage units,” Sonier said. “By having the industrial around, all of the homes on our street get devalued. Eventually people are going to move out.”
But the Oldses plan to stay put. At least once a month, the family gets a letter from a lawyer representing a businessman who wants to buy the property.
Those letters go straight into the trash.
Olds and his wife, who are in their late 60s, have instructed their children to never sell the house.
“This street is our history,” Olds said. “They are going to have to build around me.”
Alissa Skelton, 757-222-5155, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com
Alissa Skelton, 757-222-5155, alissa.skelton@pilotonline.com
