VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach could be the next part of the city impacted by an offshore windfarm.
A map from Dominion Energy shows cables part of a future wind farm off the coast of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina could come onshore there.
“We are committed to studying the route options," Dominion Energy Spokesperson Jeremy Slayton said.
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Slayton said any work on the project was still years away as of Tuesday and while Sandbridge currently seemed to be the best option a route had not been chosen.
“It does appear that we will be able to land cables underground until the point of interconnection at the proposed new switching station at corporate landing," Slayton explained.
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Sandbridge resident Gabrielle Mack, however, told News 3 Monday she has concerns about construction.
“We’re concerned about the vibrations and what could that do to possibly damage our building," said Mack. "If there’s a problem, with an accident or some issue, we don’t have a way to go around it.”
Dominion is asking for federal approval to purchase the roughly 40,000 acres of land for the project from another company’s project. The Virginia Beach City Council has already voiced opposition to the current owner, Avangrid, about the project coming onshore in Sandbridge.
News 3 asked city council woman Barbara Henley if the city will tell Dominion the same thing. How that might impact the project, though, was unclear Tuesday.
“This would be a question for the city attorney. I think if we said yes, it would be irreversible. But if we say no, then they could come back at any time and have it looked at. I think at this point, we’ll just have to see how it goes," Henley said. "One of the things with Avangrid was they really had not done a lot of work. They had not met with the community at all."
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Slayton said the company will build on what has been learned from the project in Virginia Beach.
Many residents are not happy with the project and Dominion has even had to pay fines to Virginia Beach.
“It presents an opportunity for continuous improvement. So those sorts of things that we have learned, from the construction from the community engagement, yes, we will certainly apply those," Slayton said.
One public meeting had already been held Tuesday to discuss the project. Dominion said more meetings will be held in the future.
