The Suffolk 2045 Comprehensive Plan went before City Council on August 21, 2024. During the public hearing, there were many comments from various concerned individuals and community organization representatives about the many reasons this plan is NOT good for the City or its citizens.
Reasons for opposing the plan included:
It isn’t representative of public input
It invites more development that will contribute to storm water issues
Lack of fiscal responsibility due to staff cancellation of the Fiscal Impact Analysis
Growth is outpacing infrastructure and destroying quality of life
It destroys the rural/small town feel of Suffolk
It encourages more warehouse development – against citizen feedback
It doesn’t seriously address traffic issues
It favors developers at the expense of citizens
It sidelines the agricultural industry
Council Member Fawcett agreed with a developer’s lawyer who suggested the vote be postponed and made the motion to delay action on the comprehensive plan until November 20th. Conveniently, that put the vote just past election day, but before a new City Council will be seated in 2025. This motion was seconded by Council Member LeOtis Williams.
During the August meeting, Mayor Duman stated that transportation has been the most prevalent complaint. He stated that we need a Master Transportation Plan.
“I believe that the Master Transportation Plan is something that really does need to be, not only be looked at, but we need to have something in our hands before we pass the comprehensive plan. And I’ve been told that that’s, I think, this 90 day extension will give us something to actually look at.” (Mayor Duman, City Council Meeting August 21, 2024, mark: 3:00:30)
Mayor Duman asked City Manager Al Moore if it is possible to put together a Master Transportation Plan in that 60-75 day time period to present at a work session before the November 20th meeting. Mr. Moore responded that staff has already been working on the Master Transportation Plan for some period and that ”The Transportation Plan, probably, it will be solid enough to be in shape to talk about.”
Mayor Duman responded, “I think that’s the key. If we get a Transportation Plan in place and, like I said, we just work on a few other adjustments, that being the main thing, because it is the main concern.”
Fast forward to the October 16, 2024 City Council Work Session: a presentation was given by a new contractor, VHB, that was not connected with the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. This was only made clear when Council Member Butler Barlow asked about VHB. The VHB representative stated that she is not involved in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, but is working on the Master Transportation Plan and the only things she presented were a basic overview of the plan and samples of what some maps may look like.
There was clearly confusion about the lack of an actual Master Transportation Plan. Council member Johnson asked if they will have a copy of the new plan before they vote on the 2045 Comprehensive Plan.
Director of Public Works, Robert Lewis stated that their ‘vision’ is that this Master Transportation Plan will not be part of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. He states that the Comp Plan already has Chapter 4 that addresses all the things required.
“Our vision of this, this is going to become a stand alone document. So essentially, we’ve pulled Chapter 4 out, we added to it, eventually we will bring that back to Council, you all can adopt it. But the idea is to keep it a living document, so each year as you update your CIP, we’ll go back and add those projects back in. They’ll go from visionary to funded, to planned. And again, this becomes a living document. So yes sir, I believe the intent is for you to see this, prior to November, but I’m not sure at this point, we really intend for this to be a document that’s adopted by Council that night because again there’ still some work to be done.” (Robert Lewis, City Council Work Session October 16, 2024, mark 21:48)
Keith Cannady, Comprehensive Planning Manager, jumped in to state that the Comprehensive Plan is a broad document to address land use and doesn’t go into detail for any municipal department.
Mayor Duman stated that he also expected to see more specifics as to what we plan on doing. He stated that the Comp Plan is about where we expect to see growth and what kind of growth. With that, the Transportation Plan should address how they will deal with that growth. Mr. Lewis responded that pages 98 and 99 of the 2045 Plan address this.
Mr. Moore then stated that, “This afternoon, what we want to do is bring you the opening, initial show of what we’re attempting to do. Um, it wasn’t envisioned that we’d have a complete document today, and I think I relayed that to all of you.”
Are you confused yet? We were confused watching all this unfold.
In the beginning (2021), the 2045 Comprehensive Plan was supposed to take about a year and a half, cost less than $1 million and contain: a FIA (Fiscal Impact Analysis), Master Transportation Plan, Village Plans, and reflect the input from the citizens of Suffolk.
To date, the 2045 Comp Plan is overdue, over budget, lacks the FIA, does not conform to citizen feedback, and both the Village Plans and Master Transportation Plan will be delivered at some unspecified date in the future. There is now a new contractor to handle the transportation, even though it was already in the 2045 Comp Plan contract.
We all know that there is an expectation that the 2045 Comp Plan will pass when it comes back before City Council in November. City Council Members focused on the lack of a Master Transportation Plan to table their vote until after the election, but then did not push back when staff made it clear they can’t deliver it before the vote. Will Council still press forward on this flawed 2045 Comp Plan and vote to approve?
Our City Council seems easily led by a Staff that gives excuses and rationalizes away any citizen criticisms. Despite the fact that the 2045 Comp Plan still does not reflect public input, still lacks a FIA, and still won’t have the Master Transportation Plan or Village Plans completed, I think Council will probably fall in line and send this to vote on November 20th.
Please sign our petition to let City Council know that you want them to vote ‘NO’ on this failed 2045 Comprehensive Plan.