city – Care4Suffolk

Keep Suffolk’s Downtown and Rural Areas Connected

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:10:54 +0000

CARE4Suffolk member, Ann Harris wrote a letter to the editor at Suffolk News-Herald, entitled Keep Suffolk’s Downtown and Rural Areas Connected. You can read her letter here.

It’s about the interconnectedness between the downtown area and rural agricultural areas of Suffolk and how important it is to keep these areas accessible to one another. She emphasizes the importance of keeping this vision in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan that the City of Suffolk is currently working on and how important it is to keep this in mind for future growth.

Community Engagement Session

Care4Suffolk — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 19:29:26 +0000

On Tuesday, the City of Suffolk held the first of a series of winter Community Engagement Sessions. It was held from 6-8 pm in City Council Chambers at City Hall, with about 50 members of the community in attendance.

Keith Cannady gave a slide-show presentation explaining the Comprehensive Plan and outlining where in the process they are with the creation of this important document. He also had slides which listed both feedback they have received from the public and specific follow-up questions the city has for the public that can help meet the needs of its residents.

Below are the topics and questions from the city.

1. We heard from you that… it is important that Suffolk maintain a small-town feel. How can we create inviting places in Suffolk where people feel comfortable and want to spend time?

2. We heard from you that… you want Downtown and North Suffolk to be great places. What would you like to be able to do in Downtown or North Suffolk in the future that you are not able to do today?

3. We heard from you that… you want good jobs and thriving businesses in the city, but you don’t want large developments to diminish your quality of life, such as by generating too much traffic congestion. How can the city promote business growth while not negatively impacting day-to-day activities for residents?

4. We heard from you that… it’s important to preserve rural areas in Suffolk. How can we accommodate new housing and other development that is desired but still protect nature and agriculture?

5. We heard from you that… new development along Suffolk’s corridors such as route 58 and 460 should contribute positively to the city. What do you want the look and feel of the city’s corridors to be?

6. We heard from you that… we should be thinking about different values of housing. What kind of housing (size, style, price point, etc.) is most needed?

These were the questions prompted by the city to open a dialogue with the community. We need the community to show up and share their concerns, ideas and suggestions with the city. These sessions are the single biggest impact the community will have in the process of development the next comprehensive plan.

Below are the remaining community engagement sessions. Please make time to attend at least one!

Southwestern Elementary School
February 2nd, 6pm – 8pm; 150 Pioneer Road, Suffolk, VA 23437

Oakland Elementary School
February 9th, 6pm – 8pm; 5505 Godwin Blvd, Suffolk, VA 23434

John Yeates Middle School
February 14th, 6pm – 8pm; 4901 Bennetts Pasture Rd, Suffolk, VA 23435

Nansemond River High School
February 16th, 6pm – 8pm; 3301 Nansemond Pkwy, Suffolk, VA 23434

Col. Fred Cherry Middle School
February 23rd, 6pm -8pm; 7401 Burbage Dr, Suffolk, VA 23435

Curtis R. Milteer, Sr. Recreation Center
February 28th, 6pm – 8pm; 132 Robertson St, Suffolk, VA 23438

This is YOUR chance to weigh in on the next comprehensive plan; a document that 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. Don’t miss your opportunity to have your voice heard and have an impact on the future of Suffolk. Please plan to attend at least one of the following sessions. The next one is tonight.

Pause on Rezoning

Care4Suffolk — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 05:15:00 +0000

In a letter to the editor, Bryan Harris asks if it is time to take a pause on the rezoning currently before the Suffolk City Council. With the new Comprehensive Plan in the works, maybe it is time to re-evaluate how development is happening in the City of Suffolk. [Read it in the Suffolk New-Herald here.]

Last week, City Council voted to restrict through truck traffic on several streets in North Suffolk, including Shoulders Hill and Suffolk Meadows Boulevard. I appreciate Council responding to citizen concerns about the increase in tractor-trailer problems in that area.

Whenever I drive that way I get a clear picture of what we need to prevent right outside Downtown Suffolk. I recently wrote a letter about this, which I’d like to expand on by sharing some observations from the city’s planning documents that make me scratch my head.

I had never read a Staff Report, reviewed a Traffic Impact Study, or heard of a Comprehensive Plan until recently—when I learned that a developer wants to rezone parcels on both Lake Kilby/Lake Cohoon and Manning Roads to allow for over 200 and 300 homes, respectively.

It was a new experience for me to request documents from the City, but I have since looked at multiple residential rezoning requests. Some interesting trends have jumped out at me. First, is that the staff reports presented to the Planning Commission and City Council only note new peak hour vehicle trips projected by Traffic Studies, but not the projected new trips for the entire day. In the example of Lake Kilby Road, the difference is 300-plus peak hour trips verses over 2,000 for a whole day. There is also no mention of projected vehicle trips for other upcoming nearby developments. In the case of Manning Road, the projected new peak hour trips are over 500 while the daily trip number is over 2,800. Of course, peak hour traffic is important, but these daily totals are no small matter for our quality of life and roads.

The 2035 Comprehensive Plan (written in 2015) is a very important planning document used to inform growth and development decisions. Several policies from the plan are commonly used to help justify residential rezoning, but Policy 4-1 is one that especially struck me. It states: “Provide opportunities for residents to adopt a lifestyle that is less dependent on auto travel.” Let the irony of that sink in while you imagine an extra 2,000 daily vehicle trips on rural, ditch-lined roads combined with thousands of new tractor-trailers driving throughout the city.

Citizens are now speaking out about what is happening on our roads. Their actual experiences and concerns should hold the most weight in these large-scale decisions that cost the city a lot of money and potentially disrupt the way of life so many people enjoy.

Suffolk is currently working on a 2045 Comprehensive Plan, but we need a pause on much of this rezoning now before our road situation gets any worse. We need to ensure that future development is more compatible with reality than a plan written seven years ago.

Traffic Lessons Learned

Care4Suffolk — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:57:30 +0000

Ann Harris wrote a letter to the editor of Suffolk News-Herald regarding growing traffic concerns in the City of Suffolk. [Read it in the Suffolk News-Herald here.]

It was heartening to hear serious discussion about Suffolk’s traffic issues at the City Council meeting on November 16th. While most of the focus was on problems surrounding the Northgate Commerce park in North Suffolk, both our Planning Commission and City Council should heed these hard-learned lessons when making future decisions for our city.

The traffic complications along Bridge Road, Shoulders Hill Road and Nansemond Parkway are examples of what can happen when expansive warehouses are developed in conjunction with rapid residential growth and no consideration of the capacity and health of our roads.

The current recipe being followed near downtown does not bode well for our traffic future: ongoing warehouse construction along Route 58 and Carolina Road, numerous high-density subdivisions and apartments underway on Pitchkettle, Godwin, Turlington and Pruden, and the recent rezoning to allow for five million square feet of warehouses on 460. Included in this mix are narrow, ditch-lined, rural roads, namely: Manning, Lake Kilby, Lake Cohoon, and Indian Trail, all of which are being used as alternate routes for all types of vehicles trying to avoid main road congestion.

We are facing potential rezoning on both Lake Kilby Road and Manning Road that would allow for over 200 and 300 homes respectively on each. There are now almost-daily incidents due to tractor-trailers in these areas. Indian Trail has an 11-foot railroad trestle and trucks are increasingly getting either stuck or having to turn around, causing delays in both directions.

Developers are literally asking to sandwich thousands of current and future residents between multiple warehouse districts with no consideration of what the reality is on the ground. This is happening right outside our downtown at the same time we are trying to revitalize it.

I have been to many city meetings recently and believe our representatives are now listening, but more citizen input is needed. I urge anyone who is concerned about the road situation in Suffolk to attend City Council meetings and send notes to: council@suffolkva.us and planningemail@suffolkva.us.