Hampton outlines community plan for former Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind site; $1.5M from land sale earmarked for local amenities

Hampton staff updated the City Council on Feb. 12 on community engagement around the remaining city-owned acreage of the former Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, a site the city refers to as Pine Grove.

Monica, the city's public engagement division manager, told council staff and residents have spent more than a year meeting neighbors, alumni and other stakeholders to shape a plan that would honor the property's history and create usable public space.

The city's outreach targeted about 647 homes within a radius around the site and reached 110 direct contacts and 148 survey responses. The most common uses requested in the outreach were green space and an all-abilities park; community members also suggested a museum or interpretive panels, a community garden and an outdoor learning classroom, and a neighborhood center with programming.

"A big thing was a park that was a bit available for all abilities, again to pay homage to the deaf and blind students that resided there," Monica said, summarizing survey results and steering-group priorities.

Public Works Administrator Michael Bowery provided an excerpt of planned quick-built safety and visibility improvements already under way: reflective tape on stop signs, marked stop bars, flashing advance-warning signs and a schedule for Dominion Energy to upgrade streetlights to LED fixtures by March 31, 2025. "These measures aim to improve visibility, awareness, overall safety for motorists and pedestrians," the public-works update said.

Monica said the city has $1,500,000 in proceeds from the private sale of other portions of the property and that neighborhood steering-group members said the money should be reinvested on or near the Pine Grove parcel. City staff said they plan to use those proceeds to leverage additional grant funding for larger amenities; grant opportunities identified include historic-preservation and inclusive-playground funding.

Short-term "quick wins" already planned include the lighting and traffic-safety work, sidewalk maintenance and targeted sidewalk extensions (Gloucester Street, Greenbrier Avenue) to improve walkability and access from a nearby bus stop.

Over the next three to six months, staff expect to work with Parks & Recreation on accessible playground design, a multipurpose trail with historic markers, community-garden partnerships (including a nearby food bank and Hampton City Schools) and programming to ensure the site is actively used. Longer-term work will involve small-area planning, funding for long-term maintenance and decisions about staffing or stewardship of a park or cultural site.

An unveiling ceremony of two interpretive panels, translated into Braille and archived with the Hampton History Museum, is scheduled for March 1 at 6 p.m. at the museum, staff said.

Council members asked that the city recognize individuals who historically supported the campus and its alumni at the planned events and markers; city staff confirmed the program materials will include named acknowledgments.