Inspiring Environmental Leadership
As the last large, undeveloped waterfront property on the Lynnhaven River, Pleasure House Point was saved and permanently protected by a community-wide conservation effort led by local residents and conservation groups, the City of Virginia Beach, the Trust for Public Land, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The Brock Environmental Center allows CBF to continue this partnership ethic—providing office space for a local conservation group and offering meeting space for community organizations, while providing environmental education for students and teachers from across the region.
How Pleasure House Point Was Saved
CBF Staff
A community came together to achieve the impossible. For years, the Virginia Beach community, environmental groups, and others fought an intense 1,100-home development called Indigo Dunes slated for Pleasure House Point. Pleasure House Point is a quiet peninsula of beach, marsh, and maritime forest near the Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach. The property, located just west of the Lesner Bridge and south of the Chesapeake Bay at the confluence of Pleasure House Creek and Crab Creek, overlooks the Lynnhaven River. Pleasure House Point, the last large, undeveloped waterfront property on the Lynnhaven River in Virginia Beach, was saved and protected by a community-wide conservation effort led by local residents and conservation groups, the City of Virginia Beach, the Trust for Public Land, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, City of Virginia Beach, and the Trust for Public Land collectively worked to acquire the 118 acres in July 2012. The Trust for Public Land purchased the property for $13 million. The City of Virginia Beach acquired 108 acres from the Trust for Public Land for $12 million, and CBF purchased 10 acres of the property for $1 million.
