Norfolk City Council Formal Session - November 10, 2026

Norfolk City Council Formal Session, November 10, 2026: Council unanimously approved several ordinances and resolutions. Public-hearing ordinances authorized the sale of city parcels to named purchasers, and another ordinance simplified admissions-tax rules, including narrowing the definition of taxable venues and reducing the tax rate. Budget actions appropriated $5,900 in Friends of the Norfolk Public Library donations, $5,000 from Norfolk Southern for a rail-crossing awareness and emergency-response pilot, $23,535 in opioid-settlement funds for three harm-reduction vending machines, and an additional $633,746 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding for Shelter Plus Care, with a $296,797 in-kind match. Council also approved a city agreement with the Department of the Army for the Coastal Storm Risk Management Project General Reevaluation Study, authorized a quitclaim deed release to the Station Apartments, and established an interdepartmental code-enforcement task force. No competitive solicitation or vendor contract award was identified.

Public comments raised concerns about affordable-housing displacement, water-service response, conditions and code violations at the Big Top flea market, police spending and accountability, and the city’s Flock camera deployment and its procurement process. A speaker called for a three-year moratorium on data centers. These were public comments rather than council actions; no data-center moratorium or change to the Flock arrangement was adopted during the meeting. The city manager said staff would follow up with the Oakwood Civic League and a resident regarding their concerns.