Petition to the City of Hampton Continuing Maintenance and Upgrades to The Long Creek/Salt Ponds Inlet Channel

31 Mizzen Cir, Hampton VA

Please dredge the Salt ponds channel

This is not about doing for the "rich" but rather maintaining property values which create more real estate tax revenue to give to the poor.

I periodically visit the Salt Ponds and urge the City of Hampton to maintain the channel. I remember years ago that Hampton encouraged and facilitated the development of the Salt Ponds and the surrounding properties. At the time, the city owned a dredger and maintained the channel. Sometime after the development was completed, the city sold the dredger. It appeared that the city abandoned the very thing that enticed people to buy the properties and build homes, that is, the Salt Ponds. Without access and continues maintenance of the channel to the Salt Ponds, the marines become worthless and the homes depreciate in value. Is that what the city wants to due to a valuable tax base?

I live beside the channel and can show how the sand how the sand shifts

Norfolk

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Moved to Hampton from Southside because of desirability of Salt Ponds and its acessibilty to the Bay... Do not allow that acessability to go away !!!litylw

We moved here because of the Southall Marina and easy access to the bay. If the channel becomes unnavigatable we would move.

We boat here, we live here, this creek is an active part of our lives

The only reason I moved into Southall Landings condominiums is because of the marina at Southall Landings on the Saltponds harbor. If it is not maintained, I would move and take my boat with me to another city or even another state. The values of properties on the Saltponds would rapidly fall if the inlet is not maintained. AS it is the reputation for poor maintenance has spread and now many transient boaters avoid coming into the harbor and the marinas' are losing money as a result.

I agree that the City of Hampton created this inlet to attract EACTLY what is in here and did so with the knowledge that eventually there would need to be maintenance. It is and has been the City of Hampton's responsibilty to the communities and businesses on the Salt Ponds to keep the Channel clear.

The city opened Long Creek/Salt Ponds to navigation back in the late '60's, I believe. I remember wading across from Grandview to the Buckroe side and at that time it was only a couple of feet deep. Opening the waterway for navigation made the area attractive to boaters and caused property values to rise HUGELY. The open waterway is the reason there are so many nice houses in this area of Hampton, bringing loads of property taxes to the city each year. All we're asking is that the city take a small portion of the property taxes generated in this area and feed it back in the form of maintenance of the waterway that the city opened so long ago. If the waterway is allowed to degrade, property values will plummet and the city will get far less in the way of real estate taxes. The proposed upgrade should save the city $ in the long run by significantly extending the periods between dredging.

We live outside of Richmond and chose Salt Ponds to dock out boat after consideration of ALL other marinas in the Hampton Roads area. Keep the inlet dredged for safety of navigation and it will remain a place for out-of-towners and transients boater to come. Don't dredge it regularly and revenue which would otherwise exceed pleasure craft taxes will disappear.

Southall Marinia

If you paid taxes on your pleasure craft I'd support upkeep on the channel..you don't so I don't

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Keeping the channel open, eventually will bring back the boating population, who have already left the area due to the shoaling issue.

You must maintian this important channel and come up with a better long term solution. The unnatural beach to the south of the channel is the main contributor to this problem

the failure of the city of hampton has lead the boating community to seek marina services elsewhere.