VIRGINIA BEACH — Dave Parker has lived next to Violet Bank Trail for nearly three decades. On a busy day, he’s seen between 10 and 12 people use the natural, wooded path.
Why then, wondered Parker, would the city move forward with an expensive plan to widen and pave it?
“It’s an almost $2 million anomaly,” Parker said.
Virginia Beach planned to use a $300,000 state transportation grant to help fund $1.9 million in improvements to Violet Bank Trail, which would include razing trees and hardening the surface.
But over the last several weeks, Parker and dozens of other residents of Bellamy Woods and Bellamy Manor ramped up efforts to squash the plan, which they have long said is a waste of money and detrimental to the environment and their privacy.
They recently met with some members of the City Council, and aired their concerns at a council meeting earlier this month. As of Wednesday, an online petition against paving the trail had more than 100 signatures.
Now, it seems their concerns are being heard.