The state of Virginia is expanding a website that tracks the status of permit applications at several state agencies.Preview: Virginia Beach is one of the United States' safest and most affordable cities. A GO-Banking-Rates-dot-com study earlier this month compared American cities based on cost of living and crime rate figures provided by the U.S. Census and the FBI. Virginia Beach ranked 12th out of the top 50 cities in the U.S. and was the only Virginia city on the list. Elgin, Illinois was ranked first, followed by Cary, North Carolina and Gilbert, Arizona.