An effort to make it harder to approve major land use changes in southern Virginia Beach fell in the General Assembly.
Virginia Beach had requested state permission to amend its charter so that a supermajority of City Council votes would be required for major land-use changes south of what’s called the Blue Line. It would have meant nine of 11 votes rather than a majority.
The Blue Line is the cutoff for extending city water and sewer services, which might allow more intense development. It is below the better-known Green Line, an anti-sprawl boundary. Virginia Beach has been weighing whether to permit some additional development between those two lines…