Citywide Elements

The Comprehensive Plan includes three 'Citywide Elements,' each of which examines a topic that encompasses the entire City and includes policies and guidelines for implementation. 

Advancing Our Transportation System

As an outgrowth of both the changes in our climate and the need to utilize renewable energy sources, we must find more efficient ways to transport ourselves as well as goods and services.  We must encourage development patterns that rely less on a single-occupant automobile and more on multi-occupant transportation, bicycling, walking, and on new modes of travel.   More

Managing Our Environmental Resources

The decline in the quality of the City’s natural resources and the range of environmental issues faced today are a result of past actions and decisions, such as loss of wetlands and dunes, filling of floodplains – the list is extensive.  Virginia Beach is now at a crossroads where it is appropriate to rethink the approach to how the City’s environmental assets are used, managed and protected, both in the short and long term.   More

Protecting Our Neighborhoods

A key indicator of every successful city is how well it protects the health and quality of its housing and neighborhoods.  As our housing stock grows older, some of our neighborhoods are already feeling the stress of decline.  Our actions must respond to this reality and work toward improving the health of stressed neighborhoods and reinforcing stable neighborhoods.   More​