Legal Remedy

The River Forest Shores, Easton Place, and Wayside Manor Civic Leagues voted to post a $5000 retainer in order to fund a civil case against the city. Below is the statement from the President of the Civic League for the above Neighborhoods:

Dear Neighbors,

As an update a civil suit was filed today in Circuit Court against the Norfolk City Council. At the heart of that complaint is the contention that the Planning Commission should not have acted on the developer’s applications for a Change of Zoning, a Conditional Use Permit, and Development Certificate or recommended approval as the applications were not in compliance with the Norfolk Zoning Ordinance. We will continue to update you as developments occur. However, take note that we will be communicating with you soon on a fundraising effort to support this lawsuit. As a reminder, the civic league approved the $5,000 retainer, but to address this issue to its conclusion will require additional monetary support from our neighborhoods. We thank you in advance for that support. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Debby Forehand

Donations can be made by visiting https://norfolktod.org/donate or by clicking on the Donate Widget at the top of the Development Information page.

To hear Angela Graves summarize how the city failed to work with the residents:

Due to the City’s failure to provide information about this development, as well as failing to engage the residents, the residents were forced to seek legal remedy to attempt to correct a failure that the City Council acknowledged at the meeting on January 29th, 2019. (See video clip below)

Norfolk City Council ran roughshod over the River Forrest Shores, Wayside Manor, Easton Place and other surrounding neighborhoods when it approved the construction of a high-density apartment complex and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) zoning in our midst with no plans to improve our infrastructure, despite the fact that this one development alone could bring as many as 800 to 1,000 new residents to our area.

No city official ever met with our community during this process nor did they bother to explain what TOD zoning would mean to our future. Essentially this area is being forced to prop up an under-used, debt-ridden light rail system without being offered any opportunity for face-to-face input. To make matters worse, City Council violated its own Zoning Ordinance to make this new zoning happen.

We are attempting to hold the city accountable for that misstep and for its total lack of collaboration and transparency with us. The civic league has funded the retainer for an attorney and is seeking additional funding to take this case to its conclusion. And so we are turning to area residents for support. Please consider giving whatever you can to show City Hall that you can fight them when the cause is a meaningful one. Let’s make our voices heard!