Care4Suffolk – Care4Suffolk

City Council Voting Record

Care4Suffolk — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 08:17:00 +0000

As election day approaches and early voting is well on its way, it is important to have information on which to base your decision.

Finding out how any particular City Council Member voted on any particular rezoning or land use decision is a difficult task that requires hours of combing through the agenda center on the city’s website. Sometimes that agenda isn’t clear on the rezoning location or the nature of the rezoning, in which case you have to watch the video to learn more.

We know people are busy and so Care4Suffolk has done a lot of the leg work for you. Below you can look at key rezonings and land use decisions over the last couple of years. We tried to find any rezoning that was large, or had a lot of public interest, or was similar to other rezonings that got a lot of public interest. If you are interested in learning more about a particular rezoning listed, or if we forgot a rezoning that you want to know about, just email us at care4suffolk@gmail.com.

Click on the chart to enlarge.

2024 City Council Votes

Note: The 2024 chart was edited to reflect a rezoning for Pitchkettle Landing on July 2. Thank you to the community member who brought it to our attention!

2023 City Council Votes

2022 City Council Votes

Note: CUP2021-003 – Motion way made to Deny, so Aye votes were to deny. It was unanimously was denied.

Comparison of Suffolk’s Comp Plans

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 16:35:09 +0000

Suffolk’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1998 and was the first of three comprehensive plans adopted by the City. Currently, the City is working on the fourth iteration which is scheduled to be voted on by City Council on November 20th, after the election but just before Thanksgiving.

Care4Suffolk recently obtained a copy of the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. It is not available online, but we had a member go in and take photos of each of the roughly 700 pages of the document and accompanying appendices. We are hoping to provide the public with a copy online in the future.

With the new comp plan still under way, I thought this was a good opportunity to share some of the aspects of the first comprehensive plan, especially in light of the recent admission by a city leader that this new plan is about Suffolk’s role in supporting the Port of Virginia.

The 2018 Comprehensive Plan emphasized balanced growth, specifically about keeping the growth healthy and sustainable. There were no ‘market trends’ which seems to be a focus in the 2045 Comp Plan. The second major focus of the 2018 plan was an environmental theme with a lot of focus on protecting ground water, reservoirs, and rivers.

Another theme in the old plan is preserving rural character, including a focus on rural, agricultural land, and open space. This was an actual focus, not just lip service like it is in the 2045 Comp Plan, which does mention these ideals, but it is a low priority and is juxtaposed to the massive land use changes that contradict protecting rural areas.

Core revitalizing in downtown Suffolk with economic development made up the last major theme. Economic development included agriculture and tourism along with manufacturing, office, and commercial development. This is a huge contrast to the 2045 Comp Plan which focuses heavily on creating more warehousing space to serve the Port of Virginia.

The part that stood out most about the 2018 Comp Plan was the part where is stated:

“These key ideas are a result of an intensive two-year planning process. They reflect ideas from many citizens who attended and participated in many meetings and responded on public comment forms.”

What a contrast to the 2045 Comp Plan which did a great job getting public input, but focused on the ideas of the ‘other stakeholders’ (Port of Virginia and developers) over the vision of the citizens.

Another contrast between the original comp plan and the prosed 2045 plan – the original was based on a wealth of data. The 2018 Comp Plan contained a Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA). Current city leaders are unconcerned with the fact that staff decided AGAINST doing the FIA, a frustration with citizens who are looking for fiscal responsibility from city leaders.

These pages are from Chapter 1of the 2018 Comprehensive Plan.

The 2018 Comp Plan also had a substantial amount of data on agriculture in Suffolk. One map included in the plan showed the soil conditions throughout the city.

This image is from the 2018 Comp Plan and shows the soil map – conditions of the soil throughout the city. The original map is completely in black and white. The green highlighted was done by Care4Suffolk to delineate the good soil land.

The green highlighted area represent good soil – suitable for farming. Compare the good soil map with the proposed growth areas in the 2045 Comp Plan highlighted in red. Please note that a lot of the red is actually from the current growth area under the 2035 comp plan, but the 2045 additional growth areas have been added as well to represent what will be the Growth Area if the 2045 Comp Plan is passed.

The growth areas will not stop there, however. The 2045 Comprehensive Plan contains language that allows for both utility solar and industrial projects that the City deems desirable, on agricultural lands outside the growth area. Additionally, in five years, the City will evaluate the comp plan again and can add additional growth areas if they chose. The City’s original growth area expansion in the February 2024 draft was even more extensive, but they pulled back on some of those areas due to public outcry.

The map below includes all the areas from the February draft and is telling of the City’s thinking about future growth. Each successive draft gobbles up more and more of that good soil area, chipping away at the agricultural industry in Suffolk.

How well the 2018 Comprehensive Plan was implemented, I can’t say. The2018 plan states itself:

“In some communities, the Comprehensive Plan is all but invisible, used for little else than as a reference point for contentious rezonings. It is often no more than the servant of the marketplace, simply ratifying the status quo. In other places, it is a rallying point for citizens and leaders who say, ‘this is the way we want our community to look!'”

I don’t want a comprehensive plan that’s sole purpose is to serve the needs of other stake-holders. I want a comprehensive plan that is of the people, for the people, by the people. The people have told the City what they want for Suffolk’s future – it is time for the City to start listening to us.

CONFIRMED! Suffolk’s Future is to Serve the Port

Care4Suffolk — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 19:48:46 +0000

Care4Suffolk has talked a lot about how the 2045 Comprehensive Plan does NOT reflect the citizen’s input. We have also pointed out how this plan prioritizes the Port over the people and seems to have the goal of turning Suffolk into a dry port to serve the needs of the Port of Virginia.

We have heard city staff and some city leaders defend the 2045 Comprehensive Plan numerous times since the draft came out in February. They say that not everyone is going to get what they want, that the plan is “just a plan” and that nothing is set in stone. They keep pushing back on citizens’ concerns, and have only minimally adjusted course. Since June, staff has added new slides to each presentation to further justify more warehouses. Why are unelected city staff and commissioners so determined to resist the citizens and cater to the Port?

They are treating the whole thing like a negotiation, but instead of negotiating between groups of Suffolkians, they are negotiating between the citizens of Suffolk and “other stakeholders”. This plan is clearly about the Port of Virginia – the other stakeholder – and Suffolk’s agricultural land that can be turned into warehouses to supply the Port’s needs. This is exactly the opposite of the public feedback that the citizens are continually providing the City.

Finally, we have had a city representative admit clearly what this 2045 Comprehensive Plan and projects like Port 460 are all about. At the conclusion of the August 20, 2024 Planning Commission public hearing about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, Planning Commissioner Johnnie Edwards laid it all out in no uncertain terms:

Planning Commissioner Johnnie Edwards discussing the Planning Commission retreat he attended with a presentation given by the Port of Virginia. (mark 3:55, clipped video from the Planning Commission meeting, August 20, 2024.)

“We are the future of the Region. And we have to start acting like we are the leader of the Region. Because guess what? Those other big cities, they don’t want to be leaders. And someone said in the room, ‘It should be Suffolk’. Well this is where it starts. Because you know what? The port is coming, and it’s going to be great – it’s going to change us forever. And we need to start capitalizing, because the whole world is trying to come to our area. And this plan, in my personal opinion, is the beginning. So yes, it’s time to vote and send this on to City Council.”

There you have it. After a presentation by the Port of Virginia, a Planning Commissioner now clearly understands why this 2045 Comprehensive Plan is so important – it is needed for Suffolk to lead the region in supporting the Port of Virginia.

This is the vision that Planning Commissioner Edwards buys into. What do YOU want Suffolk’s future to be? The City’s future is in our hands. We can do nothing and Suffolk’s agricultural lands will be turned into even more warehouses or we can take a stand together.

Please sign our petition opposing the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and go out and vote now or on November 5th. Make your voice heard or be prepared to watch Suffolk become the warehouse capital of Virginia.

Voting and Election Information: https://www.suffolkva.us/773/Registrar

American Association Virginia Chapter Annual Conference: “Revolutionary Planning” with keynote speaker, Stephen A. Edwards, CEO and Executive Director of the Virginia Port Authority.

How Much Will It Cost Us?

Care4Suffolk — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 02:12:29 +0000

The recent groundbreaking ceremony for the future 5-million square foot Port 460 development provides a good opportunity to remind Suffolk’s decision-makers about why a whole-city Fiscal Impact Analysis needs to be completed before a new comprehensive plan is approved.

After the August 21 City Council Meeting’s public hearing on the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, Mayor Duman made a few comments before City Council voted to delay final action on it. One statement (at Mark 2:59:50) was regarding the Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA) that was supposed to have been completed:

“I’m not that concerned with a fiscal analysis for the whole city.”

He is not the only person on Council or city staff to feel that this FIA is unnecessary. (We wrote about Comprehensive Planning Manager Keith Cannady’s response in this article.)

However, a FIA is a very important piece of data for a city when considering growth. It details the expected revenue that different development scenarios will bring and the costs of services that the city will have to provide over time. Essentially, it tells you if certain types of growth will likely be: net positive – we make money; net neutral – we break even; or net negative – it will be a fiscal drain on the city.

Mr. Cannady offered two justifications for skipping this crucial step in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. The first reason is that city planners aren’t changing Suffolk’s current growth approach (which is to just expand the growth area every five years with each new comprehensive plan update). The second reason is that he believes that the site-level FIAs conducted by developers for rezoning applications are sufficient.

A recent example of one of these site-level FIAs is the one provided by the developer (Matan Companies) for the Port 460 rezoning. If you read through the FIA they conducted here, you will see that they include figures for jobs created, tax revenue, and the money they will spend on road construction and improvements. You will also notice there is something missing: Cost of Services. This is the second piece of the equation that would include maintenance for roads, sewers, and storm water drainage, as well as costs for emergency services and other city services. A FIA should not just look at the one-time cost of these services at installation, it is supposed to include costs over time.

Matan claims that they will be spending about $27 million dollars on road construction and improvements. Only $8 million goes to improving existing roads and the remaining $19 million is to create 5 new public roads – which Suffolk and its taxpayers will have to continue to maintain indefinitely. Roads that have non-stop tractor trailer traffic traveling on them are not cheap to maintain! Leaving out the cost of services is NOT a minor detail. It is half of the piece of this puzzle.

We don’t know the answer to how much Port 460 will actually cost taxpayers, because the developer didn’t provide the data and the city didn’t ask!

The City didn’t require an independent third party to conduct or review the fiscal analysis for this huge and impactful project – they simply took the word of the developer as they do with any other ordinary rezoning application.

Is it fiscally responsible to just trust that a developer won’t omit, distort, or fabricate data on a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars? The Mayor himself stated, as he presided over the Port 460 rezoning hearing, that he didn’t believe the accuracy of the claim from Matan when they said that they would be creating 9,000 jobs. He stated:

“I agree, you know, that the number of jobs projected seems pretty high to me. I mean, I’m telling you. I’m… you know… I guess anybody can do a study, but I don’t know where we are getting 9,000 jobs from. I mean, but I’ll take 2,000.” (Source: City Council Meeting, September 21, 2022, at mark 2:08:05)

To rely solely on these site-level FIAs goes against recommendations by experts that a FIA be done during the comprehensive plan process. If the growth approach we have been following is not making the City money, then we want to change it. If there is another way to grow and we can make money and not pave over our farmland, we want to know that, too. Suffolk seems to be blindly going down the path it has been following for decades, but with no data to prove it is a good path.

We go into great length explaining the importance of the FIA and documenting expert opinions in this article. Importantly, the FIA for a comprehensive plan is not conducted by a developer, but instead as a collaboration between the city staff and the comprehensive plan contractor. We shared all of this information with the Mayor and most City Council members. A quick summary is that this FIA allows the city to analyze multiple growth build-out scenarios (3 scenarios were originally a requirement of Suffolk’s contract for the FIA). It can offer comparisons over small or large areas and allow the city to consider the fiscal impacts if certain land is developed as residential or industrial or simply left as agricultural. Our city leaders chose NOT to look at any data on any scenarios. Not only are they skipping this step for this 2045 Comprehensive Plan, it was not done for the 2035 Comprehensive Plan either, which was adopted back in 2015.

The city has been doing decades worth of this type of growth based on no fiscal analysis.

Mayor Duman says he’s not concerned with the FIA. But Suffolk’s citizens ARE concerned. The City is putting the 2045 Comprehensive Plan on hold to complete the Master Transportation Plan, which is very much needed and may demonstrate the need for a lot of expensive projects.

We have been asking since April to hold off on the plan until city staff provides a proper fiscal analysis, as originally required, for the growth that they are proposing. If development in this new comprehensive plan will be so beneficial for the citizens, then there shouldn’t be an issue proving it with an actual FIA. This plan and any future developments should be denied until we know how much it is going to cost us – the taxpayers.

Developer Influence on Comp Plan

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 17:04:11 +0000

A few months ago, we wrote an article that questioned the amount of influence developers have had in the creation of Suffolk’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan. We now know that they have extensive influence.

A recent update from the City regarding the 2045 Comprehensive Plan was published August 7, 2024, three weeks after the Planning Commission had already voted on it.

The new draft contained a change that the City explained in their email dated August 7, 2024:

Here is the a comparison of how the draft read when it went to Planning Commission on July 16th, and how it reads now:

A ‘number of property owners’ thought that this was so important that it had to be changed. This change relates to land development. These ‘property owners’ (developers), have so much sway that they were able to convince the Planning Department to change this AFTER the Planning Commission had already voted on it. Let that sink in.

Care4Suffolk, representing hundreds of citizens, expressed our shared concern about the missing Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA), months before it went in front of the Planning Commission. The FIA was supposed to be completed before the draft was even written, and it would have helped us understand how this growth will impact our future tax burden. We had no influence; the Planning Department felt it wasn’t important to do, and the plan continued on. If we had been developers instead of teachers, social workers, farmers, etc., maybe we would have held more sway.

City Relying on Bad Data

Care4Suffolk — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 14:58:00 +0000

At the July 17 City Council Work Session, Mayor Duman stated (mark 1:39:34)

“The numbers are pretty impressive. When you take Ag land, conservation land, and then put parks and open space with it, it is 82% of our land mass. I mean that’s, I mean that’s…anyway, I knew it was a lot, but that is, that is a lot. To say we have 82% in Ag, conservation, and in parks.”

That does sound like a lot, but is it true? Who is checking the data coming out of the Planning Department.

Mayor Duman is referring to the data presented by the Planning Department earlier in the work session. Keith Cannady presented the Pie Chart below with the breakdown of Land Use type. The purpose of this was to show how much land in Suffolk is still ‘rural’ (that is agricultural land, conservation, with parks & open space).

Adding those numbers up you get 83% making it look like Suffolk still has a lot of green space. That is what Mayor Duman was referencing in his quote.

We made a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request of the City for the areas that those percentages are based on. We received this typed-up sheet in response (Full document is available as a pdf at the end of this article).

These numbers do in fact tally up to the percentages in the pie chart, but the question is, where did they come from? We dug a little deeper to find some other numbers from the City regarding Land Use. In the Suffolk 2026 Comprehensive Plan (adopted in 2006), Table 3-2 on page labeled 3-7 (page 37 of document), lists Land Use data from 2005, with the source being the City of Suffolk, Geographic Information Systems compiled by URS Corp in 2005.

The two sets of data were in very different formats, so we combined them into a chart to make a comparison easier. Land Uses/Zoning were placed beside comparable Land Use (the City changes categories with comprehensive plans, but they provide corresponding zoning and land uses categories.)

We noticed right away that the City used a different Total Area for the City of Suffolk in its Pie Chart numbers. The 2005 data uses 429.2 square miles (430 square miles is the generally accepted amount of area in Suffolk), while the recent 2024 data has 388.4 square miles. The amount of water in Suffolk is roughly 30 square miles, and since this is about Land Use, it seems appropriate that it was left out. That left us with balancing the total areas so that we can compare percentages. We did this by subtracting the difference between two total areas in the two data sets and then subtracting that difference from the 2005 data in the Conservation category (because that is the category the water area would fall under). It wouldn’t make any sense that the City removed 40-ish square miles from any other land use category (Suffolk has not shrunk in the last 20 years!), so this felt like a safe assumption. Now the Total Land Area of Suffolk is equal between both data sets.

Chart created by Care4Suffolk to compare data provided by the City of Suffolk in 2005 and 2024.

The chart is split into two sides with the 2005 data on the left and 2024 data on the right. The colors used match the 2045 Comprehensive Plan Land Use Categories to make it easier to compare and find corresponding areas on the Land Use Map. Some categories have been combined, but these are noted in the 2045 Comp Plan.

This slide is from the Planning Commission Meeting on June 18, 2024. We have circled the new Growth Areas in red to highlight them, since the City did not have any way to distinguish the current Growth Areas from Future Growth Areas.

Now, let’s dig into some of these numbers on that chart. If you look at the area in acres, you will notice that in the last two decades, Suffolk has managed to increase its green space (ag land, conservation, and parks) by more than 26,000 acres, all while decreasing commercial area (by 660 acres), industrial area (by 5,500 acres), and residential land use by a whopping 18,000 acres!

If you have lived in Suffolk for even part of that time, you might be asking yourself: HOW? How has the City of Suffolk, that consistently gets ranked as one of the faster growing cities in Virginia, managed to DECREASE the amount of land use for these land use categories while still maintaining huge growth. It defies belief.

The only reasonable explanation is that one of the data sets has incorrect data. The 2005 data is properly sourced and published in the 2026 Comprehensive Plan, while the 2024 data that was presented at City Council, and when pressed for the area (with the FOIA request), was just a typed up document with no source provided. So that begs the question, where did this data even come from?

This is not the first data that the City staff has presented data that doesn’t make sense. The Planning Department has stated multiple times that the Employment Centers category (where warehouses can be built) is only a 14% increase in area compared to current industrial areas. Here are the side-by-side map comparison:

The purple areas on both maps represent where warehouses can be built. The left side is current land use and the right side is what will be if the 2045 comp plan is approved. Of course the City doesn’t provide area numbers, they just state that it is a 14% increase. Does the purple on the right look like a slight 14% increase? Not even close! It looks to be more than double the current purple area (maybe even triple – that is a LOT of purple). Is this just like the City stating that Suffolk has 83% of its land as green space? What is the real measure of that green space? We know that in 2005, it was less than 73% and the growth in the City has been historically huge! Are we even at 50% any more? We have no idea, but the important point is neither does the City!

City Council is about to vote on the 2045 Comprehensive Plan in a few short weeks. They are basing their decision in large part by the data that the City’s Planning Department is providing them. But where is this data coming from? If this information is wrong, what else is wrong? We already know that the City staff choose NOT to have the Fiscal Impact Analysis done as was originally required with this new comprehensive plan. The City staff also have postponed the Master Transportation Plan until some unspecified date in the future. Both of these would have provided a tremendous amount of data to evaluate this plan. The City also used traffic data gathered during the pandemic (when schools went online, many businesses had work from home – so this was NOT typical of traffic patterns!) When the Planning Department presents information like this to City Council and the Public, the data has to be accurate. Decisions for our future are based on this data. What other previous decisions have been based on bad data?

This plan ignored public input, and now we find that City staff have been using bad data to frame the argument in favor of this plan. City Council needs to say no to this Comprehensive Plan. This is unacceptable and the citizens of Suffolk deserve better.

Please sign our petition and share with family, friends and neighbors in Suffolk.

Documentation:

Youtube Video for July 17 City Council Work Session
2026 Comprehensive Plan
2045 Comprehensive Plan
FOIA response from Suffolk regarding the acreage from slide show presentation

Regional Influence to Turn Suffolk into a Dry Port

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:17:56 +0000

Suffolk’s City Council is about to vote on the new 2045 Comprehensive Plan. This plan focuses on economic development centered around the Port of Virginia. It prioritizes Suffolk’s “opportunity,” with its vast land mass, to serve regional needs by allowing for more warehouses.

A Comprehensive Plan is supposed to serve the needs of a city’s people, with the State of Virginia mandating that:

The comprehensive plan shall be made with the purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the territory which will, in accordance with present and probable future needs and resources, best promote the health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity and general welfare of the inhabitants, including the elderly and persons with disabilities.

If the focus is supposed to be on the general welfare of the inhabitants, why is the City tailoring its long-term growth to the needs of the Port of Virginia and regional goals?

This regional focus becomes clearer when you understand that the person hired to be in charge of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan had previously worked as the Deputy Executive Director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, since 2016, with one of his duties being to develop a “program to increase the region’s inventory of shovel-ready economic development sites.” This new 2045 Comprehensive Plan also emphasizes shovel-ready projects in Suffolk.

In addition, the Deputy City Manager in charge of the Planning Department (the department responsible for the creation of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan), has a strong regional background as well. He previously worked as Business Development Manager with the Hampton Roads Alliance, an organization that “represents 14 localities who, with the support of nearly 100 private sector investors, govern and resource the organization and its regional economic development efforts.” His regional connection doesn’t end there. He is a member of Hampton Roads Chamber, “the premier pro-business organization serving the region to build the best climate for businesses to thrive”. He is not just a member, he is also on their Board for the Suffolk Division. Additionally, he became a part of their ‘Signature Program’ as part of the LEAD Class of 2015 alumni. This nine-month exclusive program is designed by the Hampton Roads Chamber to “promote servant leadership to create momentum for positive change across our region’s seventeen communities through extensive networking and collaboration.”

The Hampton Roads Chamber, as part of their legislative agenda, promotes regional and public-private collaboration to support economic development, support site-ready funding, and “continue investment in businesses and transportation networks that support the expansion of the Port of Virginia.” The Port of Virginia happens to be one of the ‘Strategic Partners’ of Hampton Roads Chamber, as well as the Hampton Roads Alliance. There is a huge overlap in the goals of these regional partners, and they all support one another.

Hampton Roads Chamber State Legislative Priorities 2024

Now let’s look at the Steering Committee, the volunteer committee selected to “help guide the process for and substance of the plan”. There are 24 members of this committee and about half of them are either: not from Suffolk, have strong ties to these regional organizations, and/or are in the real estate business. Nine Steering Committee members are also members of at least one regional organization, with five of those members currently or previously holding Board positions or other leadership positions. Half the committee may have vested interests that may not align with Suffolk residents. One of these members is a Vice President with the Port of Virginia with his role listed as Port Centric Logistics. The deck has been stacked against Suffolk’s right to control its future, through the regional influence in this plan.

We have nothing against these individuals personally, or against these organizations. We are not against business, nor are we against Suffolk being part of the broader Hampton Roads community.

The problem comes when individuals are hired/selected by the City of Suffolk to serve the people of Suffolk, and instead of serving the citizens’ needs and wants, they prioritize regional goals. The Port of Virginia needs more warehouses and workforce housing, and Suffolk has the land to build it. This is the view of these regional organizations and these are the major themes and objectives in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. But do the citizens of Suffolk want their city to become a dry port? They do NOT, and they provided plenty of feedback for the City during this Comprehensive Plan process to let the City know what they do want – the City just chose to ignore it. The City is not fulfilling its legal requirement to focus “on the general welfare of the inhabitants”.

We documented previously about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and public feedback. The City received 7,500 responses with the categories below. The plan not only doesn’t fulfill these needs and wants of its people, it is contrary to many of them.

The plan has a heavy emphasis on economic development which sounds good in theory, yet the City decided against conducting the previously planned Fiscal Impact Analysis and it has delayed the much needed Master Transportation Plan. Both of these would have provided solid data to shed more light on the economic impact of this huge growth in both warehousing and suburban sprawl that is coming with this 2045 Comprehensive Plan. The City chose not to do them, but then claims without data, that this will be good economic growth for the City.

Data was presented from March 20, 2024 City Council Work Session Packet, p. 69.

We are not against warehouses, in general, and it is good to work with our neighboring cities, to a point. But don’t we have enough warehouses? We already lead the region, with Suffolk being home to one-third of all warehouse space in Hampton Roads. We have more than our fair share. Warehouses have negative impacts that can not be ignored. They bring truck traffic and pollution, and they add little to the local economy compared to other industrial and commercial development. Additionally, warehouses do not help develop the sense of community that citizens are craving – people don’t want to live near them because they are big, ugly, noisy, polluting, and cause road headaches and safety concerns with truck traffic. Lastly, these warehouses will be built on what is currently farmland. It is some of the most fertile farmland in the state, and once built over, it will be destroyed forever.

Suffolk has long been a regional partner in both agriculture and with our water. The lakes within Suffolk provide drinking water to many in Hampton Roads. Why must we put both of these in peril: one to be destroyed to build warehouses, and the other polluted by the proximity of this growth to the watershed. Why don’t we get a say in how we participate in the region instead of the region dictating to us?

It is high time that the City staff and leaders are reminded that they work for the citizens, and they do not have the right to pass this 2045 Comprehensive Plan which goes directly against the wishes of the public.

The 2045 Comprehensive Plan goes to City Council on August 21 at 6pm in City Hall. Let’s hope that Mayor Duman remembers what he said about City Council at this year’s State of the City:

“Together these outstanding individuals share a total of 82 years of public service. Together they work tirelessly to provide unparalleled representation of their constituents. Collectively as a council, we work cooperatively with one goal in mind, and that is, to serve our citizens. It is a privilege to work with them, and beside them, as we do the people’s work.”

Please let Mayor Duman and City Council know that you oppose the 2045 Comprehensive Plan by signing our petition. Share with your neighbors, friends and family in Suffolk.

Will Taxpayers Be Footing the Bill for 460 Development?

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:28:52 +0000

“Forty percent of the justification of any transportation project in our region today is driven by congestion. So if you don’t have congestion, you’re probably not gonna get money.”

-Robert Lewis, City of Suffolk Director of Public Works, Planning Commission 2045 Comprehensive Plan public hearing, July 16, 2024 (YouTube time stamp 2:20:50)

It isn’t Mr. Lewis’ fault that Hampton Roads’ traffic is an absolute mess. He was just stating things the way they are, but does that mean we have to just accept it?

He and our other city leadership seem resigned to it as the status quo instead of using the leverage our city has to demand better support of our infrastructure. Suffolk has the land that the Hampton Roads region and leaders in Richmond want to develop in support of the Port of Virginia—the port especially really wants and needs our land for warehouse space.

Our city leadership needs to hold people’s feet to the fire and not be so willing to bow down to the demands of other entities. We have what they want and they should support our city as an equal partner in this scheme they call “Responsible Regionalism.” This “responsibility” should work two ways and Suffolk should not be left scrounging to pay for the infrastructure the region needs.

An example is happening right now, as some people celebrate the $30 million that was just granted for Route 460 improvements to support the Port 460 project. Did you know that this three-mile project is going to actually cost a total of $86 million?

While watching the March 20, 2024 City Council Work Session about this project, I learned the following:

There is no requirement for these road improvements to be in place for Port 460 to be built out (per Deputy City Manager Kevin Hughes, Time Stamp 36:10)
The Port of Virginia only kicked in $1 million
The developer only kicked in $6.6 million
City officials have spent the past two years just trying to get the $30 million funding (take a look at the extensive packet that was put together to ask for this money—it looks like a lot of work hours must have been put in!)
City officials have decided that we are a “Port-Centric Partner” in order to “sell” our need for the funding
The $30 million is just for “right of way acquisition” and utility relocation
In order to secure the $30 million, the City had to prove that it can fund the remaining $48 million for the actual construction costs
As of now there is no outside funding for the $48 million, so it is budgeted into the Capital Improvement Program (CIP)
City financial advisors were consulted to determine the city’s ability to fund “its portion” of the project and determined that Suffolk does have “the ability to issue an additional $48,049,520 in general obligation bonds between FY 27 and FY 29”
By FY 2027, Suffolk will have to find additional revenues to repay debt service; additional required revenue will increase each year

This is the point where we’ll probably accept the low-hanging fruits of development options as our sources of additional revenue. And the cycle will begin again.

And they wonder why we are concerned about a Fiscal Impact Analysis!

No doubt Route 460 must be improved to accommodate all the new traffic projected for Port 460 and the miles of even more warehouses and residential development envisioned by city staff in the new 2045 Comprehensive Plan, if it gets approved. According to the Suffolk News Herald article about the $30 million funding, Governor Youngkin said this is all happening “through the power of partnership.” However, it feels like our “partners” are making us jump through a lot of hoops to do their bidding.

Documentation:

Please sign our petition to urge City Council to vote ‘NO’ to the new 2045 Comprehensive Plan.

Small Town Feel

Care4Suffolk — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 19:26:27 +0000

The desire to keep a “small-town feel” has been a common thread in discussions about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. The difficult thing is explaining where this feeling comes from. But just because it is difficult, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to quantify it or do our best to preserve it. Anything unique about a place should be captured and protected because that is what attracts people and can be a key element of the local economy.

Suffolk’s “small-town feel” comes from the interconnectedness of the City-Center and Agricultural areas. The proximity of rural areas to downtown is something unique and we should embrace how close one is to the other. Suffolk is special! Where else in Hampton Roads can you get a handcrafted latte from a locally-owned shop and then within minutes be at a horse farm or fishing spot?

However, it seems the trend everywhere is to surround downtown with development, making it harder for people living there to access nature, open spaces, as well as essential necessities like hospitals and grocery stores. Suffolk’s City-Center isn’t “urban” in a typical sense, so following the typical patterns of high-density growth all around it doesn’t seem to be working.

Do you think that anyone in Suffolk would say that it has gotten easier for people in the downtown area to access necessities listed above? Have the growth trends in recent years resulted in an economic boom for downtown and other struggling retail centers?

Despite the increased congestion in and around downtown, it is still an integral part of commercial and social activity for residents from less-populated boroughs. You often run into people you know at a local restaurant or the feed store. Will more high-density rooftops and new shopping centers sprawling into rural areas with inadequate roads actually make going downtown more convenient and desirable?

The City has a chance with the 2045 Comprehensive Plan to create a vision for how we grow by embracing the character of the rural and downtown proximity and not making it harder for people to move into, out of, and around the City-Center.

Please sign our petition to urge City Council to vote ‘NO’ to the new 2045 Comprehensive Plan.

Voice of the People

Care4Suffolk — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 17:15:47 +0000

The City of Suffolk is on the verge of adopting the new 2045 Comprehensive Plan. This plan just got approved by a vote of 7-1 by the Planning Commission and it now heads to City Council for a vote on Wednesday, August 21 at 6pm at City Hall.

This plan is NOT in the best interest of the residents.

Please sign our petition opposing this plan and read on for more details.

The City received more than 7,500 responses from citizens telling the City what they want for the future of Suffolk. The responses were documented and then summarized, and you can read those here.

The key themes from the public’s responses are in the chart below along with whether the City has a plan to deliver based on the 2045 Comprehensive Plan:

WHAT THE PEOPLE ASKED FOR:	2045 COMP PLAN TO DELIVER
Small town feel	NO
Downtown Investment	NO
Open Space and Parks	NO
Well planned development	NO
Fix traffic issues	NO
Safe, walkable communities	NO
Invest in public transportation, trails, and rail	MAYBE
Well planned economic development	NO
More amenities	MAYBE
Affordable housing	MAYBE
Limit warehouses	NO
Preserve agriculture	NO
Engage public about their wants and needs	NO

Using all the public feedback, the City could have developed a vision for Suffolk that the people could get behind. However, the 2045 Comp Plan has no vision. With the demand from citizens to invest in downtown, the City could have focused economic development on downtown, but instead, they are carving out new areas for even more warehouses (we already lead Hampton Roads in warehouses!) Instead of limiting warehouse development to existing space and fixing our traffic problems, the 2045 Comprehensive Plan will exacerbate these problems, destroy the open space and farmland people want to preserve, and ruin that small town feel that Suffolk has.

People want to live in communities that are safe and walkable. The push for more warehouses is driving the housing market’s need for higher density housing, and builders want to build where it is cheap and easy (namely on agricultural land), so they can maximize their profits. The City could have focused on community building and infill development close to downtown, but instead we are going to get more of the same suburban sprawl that is NOT walkable, and it will devour more agricultural land. The City keeps allowing these huge suburban neighborhoods and thinks that just because they put sidewalks there, that makes them walkable.

The people of Suffolk value the open spaces and farmland in Suffolk. Farmland is a finite resource that once gone, is gone for good. Getting rid of the land that grows our food is terribly short-sighted. The city pays lip service to preserving agricultural land, but it stipulates that it will preserve it only OUTSIDE the Growth Areas. Yet the City keeps expanding the Growth Areas. They also added language to this new plan that gives them flexibility to build outside the Growth Areas IF the City deems it is a good idea. So basically, no farmland, forestry land, or open space is safe from development, if it can feed the City’s voracious appetite for ‘growth’.

L.5.3 Consider amending the City’s development regulations to add guidelines for the review of exceptional development opportunities outside of the growth boundaries. (p.68 of 2045 Comprehensive Plan)

Before getting public comments, the City met with ‘focus groups’ and staff. We don’t know who attended these meetings, so we submitted a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request, and are waiting for that information, but what is pretty clear is that early on it was staff and certain groups of people that were able to sway this plan to their desires, and it definitely wasn’t the citizens.

Here are some highlights from those meetings (full summary is here):

WHAT ‘FOCUS GROUPS’ ASKED FOR:	2045 COMP PLAN TO DELIVER
Interest in expanding Growth Areas	YES
Vacant, rural land provides areas for transformative development projects	YES
Demand is there for continued growth	YES
Efficient and predictable review process, “speed to build” or will look at other communities.	YES
Infrastructure costs – water, sewer, and roads can become barriers for industrial development.	YES
Growth of industrial areas is what drives many of the housing developments.	YES
There is a shifting need to invest in infrastructure prior to building homes (initial investments for long-term returns) would assist developers.	YES
City should either allow for more industrial development or limit based on current boundaries; there is a demand so this is a choice for the City to make.	YES
Renewable energy is looking within the region, planning for this in rural areas is important.	YES

These focus groups got a lot of things THEY wanted – expanded growth areas along with more land use for industrial and then more land for residential development to support it. They asked for a faster and more predictable review process.

L.1.2 Review and revise current development regulations, including the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and the zoning map, to improve compatibility with the comprehensive plan. (p.64 of 2045 Comprehensive Plan)

This is part of the “efficient and predictable review process”. It doesn’t matter how many times a staff or City Council Members says that this is ‘just a plan’ and ‘not written in stone’, because the City is planning to rewrite the UDO to reflect the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and rezoning applications that come before them that conform to the Future Land Map will get rezoned. This new Land Use Map is the future of Suffolk. If you don’t know what the land around your home will look like in the future, you should check it out now. This could be our last chance to change this.

The other item that was requested by these ‘focus groups’ was about infrastructure. Developers want it in place so they don’t have to pay or wait for it. Let’s take a moment to appreciate that one about infrastructure. As citizens, we get told all the time that development builds the infrastructure, as in literally, if a developer wants to build, he has to pay for the sewer connection, a pump station if necessary, build the roads and sidewalks, etc.. All of a sudden, developers are complaining about how expensive that is and maybe they won’t build unless the infrastructure is already in place – and so the City adds into the 2045 Comprehensive Plan:

L.5.1 Identify priority economic development sites and make strategic investments to advance site readiness. (p.68 of 2045 Comprehensive Plan)

E.1.6 Strategically expand utility service (water, sewer, fiber) to sites that can support new employment generating businesses. Develop financing options to

facilitate the construction of water and sewer projects to support development.

Use City-funded utility capacity improvements as incentives for development. (p. 81 of 2045 Comprehensive Plan)

The site-readiness is all about having everything in place so developers don’t have to do the work or spend the money to get the land ready. The idea is now that the city will bring in the sewers and other utilities and have the site ready to build on, which will make it more attractive to developers.

Keep in mind that the people asked for fewer warehouses, but now we will get to pay to help build what we don’t even want. How is this representing the citizens? If these warehouses are going to be bringing in so much money, the developers should foot the bill to invest in infrastructure – not the taxpayers!

To entice these warehouse developers that the citizens don’t want, the City is prepared to make Suffolk’s current farmland ‘site-ready’ for the developers on our dime. Knowing this, the City still made the decision to skip the fiscal analysis. The experts that had been contracted to do the FIA, recommend doing the FIA first and then evaluating options, only then should the city write the comprehensive plan. The City of Suffolk decided that it wasn’t going to even evaluate different options for development and it wasn’t necessary to look at the long-term financial impact. This is a HUGE increase in growth for the city, including building large scale warehouses and residential developments on farmland that does not currently have infrastructure.

The State of Virginia requires that comprehensive plans be adopted with the purpose of “prosperity and general welfare of the inhabitants”. This plan does NOT meet that standard. This plan is supposed to be about us, our needs and wants, and our vision for the future of Suffolk, not the Port’s needs, developers’ desires, and the will of City staff.

If any of this isn’t sitting right with you, please join us in opposing the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. Please sign our petition, share with all of your neighbors, friends and family in Suffolk. Maybe, just maybe, if enough of us tell City Council we don’t want this, maybe they will listen to the voice of the people.

Please sign our petition to urge City Council to vote ‘NO’ to the new 2045 Comprehensive Plan.