CARE4Suffolk – Care4Suffolk

Comprehensive Plan Survey

Care4Suffolk — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 18:11:47 +0000

If you haven’t done it yet, complete the survey for the 2045 Comprehensive Plan draft before the April 8th deadline. It is available online, or if you prefer a paper survey, email care4suffolk@gmail.com and we will get you a copy.

If you aren’t familiar with Comprehensive Plans, they are used by cities to guide development. Virginia requires them and cities have to review theirs every 5 years. This 2045 Comp Plan will go before Suffolk’s City Council sometime this summer and, if approved, take effect immediately. The city has been soliciting feedback from citizens at various points in the process of developing the new plan.

The Comp Plan states where and what type of development will happen in Suffolk by creating “Growth Areas.” There are some huge changes in this plan, including a growth area expansion of almost 25%. The City also wants to increase industrial development (like warehouses and distribution centers) by about four times the area currently zoned for them. If you thought the roads were packed with tractor trailers now, just wait!

This survey provides your last opportunity to suggest changes to the comp plan, before it goes through the process to City Council. The survey is long, consisting of three parts. The first is the interactive map. It provides what will be the Future Land Use and Growth Area map. You can click anywhere on the map and a window will pop up with a list for you to select what type of land use you think it should be. There is also space to write a comment.

The second part has a series of Actions. These are the main objectives and actions that the city wants to implement. You have to select “View Actions” under each one in order to read the details and see where you can write a comment on them and select whether you support the action or are concerned. There is no option to object, but you can write that in the comments.

The third part is demographic information and is pretty straightforward.

There are two major issues that stand out in the Action section. The first is under the Land Use and Growth Management section. There are a lot of statements that are designed to align zoning to the Future Land Use map, which is very different from what we have now. Currently, most of the land they want to add in the expanded Growth Area is zoned for agriculture. Including this agricultural land in the Growth Area, combined with many of these new Actions, will make it easier for the developers to get this land rezoned. That is concerning considering the huge expansion of the growth area and how much of it is designated for the Future Land Uses of ‘Suburban Neighborhood’ and ‘Employment Centers,’ which is the city’s new term for industrial. That’s where warehouses and distribution centers will be built.

The other thing that stood out was the contradictions present in the ‘Objectives’ and ‘Actions’. The City states in a variety of ways that it wants to preserve farmland, protect open spaces, increase access to natural spaces, and protect the watershed, waterways, reservoirs, and environmentally sensitive areas. These all sound great, except they want to expand the Growth Area into these exact areas. The best, cheapest, and easiest way to do all of this preserving and protecting is to NOT expand the growth area and NOT label them for future suburban residential and industrial land uses.

Expanding growth area by almost 25% and the need to protect these natural resources are at odds. If the city truly cares about our farmers and wants to protect our water and environment, the city just needs to remove the new additions to the growth area. It is really simple. It won’t cost us anything. Remove the growth areas for the benefit of Suffolk.

May Meat Madness

Care4Suffolk — Sat, 13 May 2023 16:40:02 +0000

CARE4Suffolk is organizing another food drive to support the local Salvation Army. The theme for this effort is May Meat Madness! We are asking for donations of canned meats.

When: Sunday, May 21^st from 12-3pm – Stay for hot dogs if you can!

Where: Liberty Lane Farm, 2455 Lake Cohoon Road, Suffolk, VA 23434

What: Canned Meats (i.e. Vienna Sausages, SPAM, canned tuna or chicken)

If you can’t make it on May 21st, please feel free to drop off donations anytime from May 17- May 20th at Liberty Lane Farm on the barn porch.

Please consider downloading the flyer to share with others.

Inconvenient Truth: There is No Housing Shortage

Care4Suffolk — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 21:57:31 +0000

Suffolk Citizens:

Last week a regional real estate association distributed a letter to its Suffolk members asking for their attendance at the March 21 Planning Commission meeting to support the approval of a rezoning request on the commission’s agenda. As there are currently only two rezoning requests on the agenda, only RZ2021-00018 (Lake Kilby Road) proposes the development of family homes and can be the subject of the letter.

RZ2021-00018 proposes rezoning 87 acres of land from Rural Estate (RE) to Rural Medium (RM) density and the development of 4.4 homes per acre. In previous proceedings, the application met with citizen opposition, citing level of service deficiencies for already overcrowded schools, inadequate road conditions, and concerns over stormwater runoff causing flooding.

This letter was sent out by a regional real estate association to its Suffolk members.

The letter raised the following points, which must be refuted:

The realtor stated Suffolk has limited housing inventory and without continued lots, we cannot sustain future growth, and the commission must approve RZ2021-00018 in order to have homes available in the community.

This cannot be further from the truth. According to Movoto.com, there are over 800 Suffolk home listings and compared to last year, the days on the market have increased 37% from 46 to 73 and 7% of listings have experienced price reductions. The 2035 Comprehensive Plan set growth for residential units to 522 per year. The current residential pipeline has 7,480 housing units approved but not yet built, which accounts for 19-years of projected population growth. Additional rezoning is unnecessary to maintain housing inventory and the Planning Commission must focus on the development of land already zoned for residential development. The cover e-mail for the letter showed some realtors are interested in continuing the rapid sales seen over the past couple years, citing 800 new construction homes were closed on last year, significantly higher than the growth set by the 2035 Comprehensive Plan.

According to the realtor, a limited inventory will drive up the cost of homes, making it unaffordable for young and average families.

According to Movoto.com, the median cost of a home in Suffolk is $412K. The city statistics show an average household income of $81K. Even with a good credit score and 20% down payment, young and average families cannot afford to purchase the proposed homes, which are forecasted to sell for an average of $500K. There are many factors making home buying unaffordable, such as inflation and interest rate increases, which reduce the purchasing power of a young or average family, and is not eliminated with zoning changes.

The realtor put forth that to build schools, roads, and other infrastructure, we need growth to collect real estate, personal property, and sales taxes.

Growth requires additional city services, which are currently stressed. The city is struggling to maintain an adequate level of service for schools, roads, stormwater runoff, and other infrastructure to support current communities, and cannot meet levels of services for additional development already in the pipeline. The city’s planned infrastructure improvements are years out. The Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) requires the level of service to be concurrent with the impact of development. The city needs to take a pause on rezoning additional land until development in the pipeline is met with adequate levels of service. As we add more citizens, we will add additional stress to the already overstressed infrastructure.

This was the cover email sent out by a regional real estate association to its Suffolk members.

The realtor’s cover e-mail related that the association knows the importance of “Smart Growth”, supporting rezoning in Suffolk for new communities, and calls out that CARE4Suffolk is opposing rezoning because the organization does not want more communities built in Suffolk.

According to the EPA, “Smart Growth” approaches include conserving resources by reinvesting in existing infrastructure and involving residents in development decisions. It stresses the importance of balancing health, schools, taxes, traffic, the environment, economic growth, and fairness in development decisions. Similarly, the CARE4Suffolk mission supports responsible growth, where the citizens of Suffolk will receive the level of service expected to maintain our quality of life. We understand the importance of growth and change and want it to occur responsibly with the city ensuring the infrastructure is in place, including schools, roads, and public utilities, prior to rezoning and development. We also want to preserve our wetlands and the areas around our reservoirs, which serve as our drinking water, and a precious resource for all of Hampton Roads.

The letter showed some realtors value having additional homes to produce sales as a higher priority in Suffolk than having safe roads and adequate school capacity. The city must consider the needs of all citizens and not merely some developers and realtors who stand to profit from irresponsible development. CARE4Suffolk calls for the city to take a pause on rezoning until there is a reduction in the pipeline and the city’s infrastructure can provide adequate levels of services as laid out in the UDO and the Comprehensive Plan. To learn more about this rezoning request, click here.

Dr. Sherri L. Johnston
Executive Director
CARE4Suffolk.org

Public Hearing Items Available

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 17:17:00 +0000

The City of Suffolk has recently implemented a new process for significant land use projects. The planning department now uses the threshold of the 100s (100+ homes, 100,000+ sq. ft. for commercial uses, or 100 acres) to determine if an application will require additional time.

This new process, for any rezoning application or conditional use permit that meets one of these threshold, or if it is deemed significant by the Planning Director, allows extra time for both the Planning Commission and the City Council to review these significant land use applications. It adds an additional 30 days above the previous requirements. Prior to implementing this new process, whether a request was for in-home daycare permit or a enormous warehouse, the same amount of time to was given to both. Often, the first time the Planning Commissioners would be seeing the plans would be just a few days before they were expected to vote on it. The new process gives both voting bodies a longer chance to look at the plans and analyze the request. This is a very positive change and CARE4Suffolk is excited to see it in action.

Additionally, the city is now providing citizens all the information on each rezoning and conditional use public hearing item. This is a plus for both the public and the planning department. Previously, when you saw a blue sign, you had to call the city to find out what is going on. This was time consuming for both the city employees and residents. Now, with a click of a button, you view and download all the available information. CARE4Suffolk applauds the efforts of the city to make the process more transparent and accessible to the public.

Note: The link to the city’s site with the rezoning and conditional use/public hearing items is now available on our main menu under Rezoning Concerns.

Public Forum

Care4Suffolk — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 23:59:10 +0000

CARE4Suffolk will be hosting a Public Forum next week Thursday, November 17, 2022 from 6-8pm. The location will be announced tomorrow once it is confirmed.

The City of Suffolk Department of Planning and Community Development will be a guest speaker, presenting to the public general information about the Suffolk 2045 Comprehensive Plan. This Comprehensive Plan will provide the basis for how the City of Suffolk manages growth. This document will impact where future development will happen, as well as influence policy and improvements in infrastructure such as schools, roads, public utilities, conservation and the protection of our quality of life as citizens of Suffolk.

Please join us and share your vision of the future of Suffolk with the city.

Location Update:

Family Affair, Inc.
3262 Jackson Road, Suffolk
(on Faulk Lane a private drive)

Opposition in a Box

Care4Suffolk — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 11:40:00 +0000

The Ellis Farm rezoning request has not gone before the Planning Commission with a public hearing yet, but CARE4Suffolk is ready when that day happens. In early September, when neighbors of Ellis Farm realized that a developer applied for rezoning of the land with the intention of building 300 houses, they gathered together to form a group to oppose this rezoning and came up with a plan of action.

When rezoning signs get posted by the city, there are only two short weeks for citizens to learn about the rezoning, gather information and research, and if they oppose the rezoning, it does not leave them much time to make a plan to oppose the rezoning. CARE4Suffolk would like share what we did to prepare for the Ellis Farm opposition.

Our first step was to contact the city and learn all we could about what the rezoning is, what the plan for the property is and where in the rezoning process it is. Next, as neighbors we started to connect with one another about this. We were emailing each other, calling, and bringing it up in conversation as we ran into each other. One of our neighbors organized a meeting to bring everyone together to figure out what we can do to stop the rezoning. She reached out to our city council member as well.

At our first community meeting at the house of one of our neighbors, where around 20 people attended, we discussed what our options are and let everyone have a chance to share their thoughts. The meeting was about 5 days before the scheduled Planning Commission meeting, so there wasn’t a lot of time. We decided to focus on two main areas of concern: overcrowded schools and traffic/safety on Manning Road. We asked for volunteers to speak before the city and two volunteers offered their help with research and writing. With this group of five, we worked the weekend to prepare the speeches and documentation to be delivered to the city the following Tuesday. We had an online petition gathering scores of signatures daily. We also had several people outreaching to the broader community to gain more support. Our plan was to have as many community members show up to the Planning Commission meeting as possible, and when our first speaker asked for anyone present who opposes the Ellis Farm rezoning to please stand up, our group would stand en masse. Our outreach was done through social media, emails, phone calls, and the monumental task of delivery flyers up and down Manning Road and the surrounding communities. We asked community members to ask their friends, family, and neighbors is Suffolk to join us.

As it turned out we were able to gather a crowd of about 50 people. We all showed up early to City Hall but the developer got wind of our opposition and requested the item to be tabled. The public hearing for the Ellis Farm was tabled for 30 days. At first we were all very disappointed and frustrated by this, but in the end it worked in our favor. Thirty days gave us a lot more time to prepare. We jumped right into preparations for the next Planning Commission meeting. One member of our group began getting t-shirts printed. Another started a website. We also decided to organize our volunteers into teams to better spread out the workload. In addition, our researchers grew in number and they had more time to perfect our arguments against rezoning. Our outreach team continued to deliver flyers, make calls, and post online. In addition, we held a series of public meeting inviting anyone in the community to come and bring a friend, to learn more about what we were planning.

CARE4Suffolk’s Blue Binder with each argument in opposition to the rezoning and each piece of documentation in its own labeled tab.

“Opposition in a Box”: This banker’s box contained eight blue binders from CARE4Suffolk, one for each Planning Commissioner, along with a thumb drive with a digital version.

From our first Planning Commission meeting we learned that emailing our substantial documentation, which was then printed by the city, and provided to the Commissioners, was not the best format to provide our detailed arguments opposing the rezoning. One member came up with the idea to organize our research into binders. Our research and writing team began to prepare these. We sorted our binders into sections, with each argument in opposition and each supporting document having its own tab to quickly reference. We duplicated this is a digital format. The week before the October Planning Commission meeting, all of our documents were due to be handed into the city. One member boxed up eight binders into a banker’s box and attached a thumb drive with the electronic version, and then delivered it to the city. We have dubbed this our “Opposition in a Box”.

By the end of the thirty days, our membership had multiplied and we began to make contacts with other Suffolk residents who were experiencing rezoning issues of their own. We began to collaborate and to share information and resources. The Lake Kilby group was scheduled to appear before the Planning Commission at the same time and their rezoning plight shared so many issues with our Ellis Farm rezoning. We decided to coordinate. We attended each other’s meeting and we shared our binder with them as well as our strategy. Our rezoning got pulled from the agenda by the developer, so we did not end up having our public hearing, but we were happy to be able to join forces with Lake Kilby and stand for them, as they were prepared to stand for us, to oppose the irresponsible rezoning on Lake Kilby Road. We are excited that the Planning Commissioners voted against recommending the Lake Kilby rezoning. We hope to persuade them to vote against rezoning Ellis Farm when we get a chance to have our public hearing.

If you are facing a rezoning request near you, and you have concerns about its impact, feel free to use any of our strategy to help your cause. Here is a link to our digital binder. It shows our arguments in opposition and the research we collected, and how we organized it all. If your rezoning concern is in Suffolk, consider completing our Rezoning Concern Form to let us know more about it.

Banners

Care4Suffolk — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 17:38:14 +0000

We have successfully put up all of our banners on and around Manning Road. Thank you to all of those who have volunteered to place a sign in your yard! Also, a big thank you to those delivering and installing signs.

We are hoping these banners will help bring awareness to CARE4Suffolk and the rezoning issues. We have an amazing outreach team that had been delivering flyers up and down Manning Road. It is a dangerous job to be working right off the road, so we are excited to have our signs in place to advertise for us.