Citizens Criticized for Speaking Out

Care4Suffolk — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 13:49:09 +0000

We already discussed how Council Member Rector tried unsuccessfully to dismiss Care4Suffolk’s claim that the 2045 Comprehensive Plan is port-centric during the November 20, 2024 City Council Meeting. Now let’s talk a bit about the fact that we have City Council Members that sit on the dais and publicly ridicule citizens who have the audacity to send in public comments and to show up to speak.

Council Member Rector characterized opponents of the comp plan as having a ‘hangover’ from the Port 460 project. Not only is this an insulting comment to make about concerned citizens, Mr. Rector is ignorant of the people he is criticizing.

We feel the need to defend ourselves since Council Member Rector mentioned us, not by name, but through the comments we submitted. Care4Suffolk is a diverse group of concerned citizens who have varied backgrounds but a common interest. We come together to share information, our talents, and our time to learn about land use issues and share what we learn with the broader public.

Care4Suffolk had nothing to do with Port 460. We were just getting organized at the time when that was going through council and we were focused on a different land use issue. It turns out that there are a lot of citizens, and citizen groups, who are concerned with land use issues throughout our city. During the more than two years that we have existed as a group, Care4Suffolk has only opposed two residential developments and only one of those even came before City Council.

When Council Member Rector characterized us, and other concerned residents, as afraid of change, he was dismissive and hypocritical. We do want economic development, just not warehouses. Growth can be positive for a community, but it should be carefully planned and not negatively impact the quality of life of those already residing in Suffolk. Those are reasonable feelings to have about development. However, it was Mr. Rector himself, who wanted to close the barn doors behind him after he moved to Suffolk in the 1980s. Mr. Rector should not project his previous feelings (which perhaps changed after he became a realtor?) onto citizens and citizen groups.

“I know that if you are here, and settled, and you like where you live, which most folks in Suffolk seem to, I fully understand why changes can be upsetting, to say the least. When I moved here in 1986, 38 years ago, I wanted to pull the barn doors closed behind me.” November 20, 2024 City Council Meeting, mark 2:45:30 – 2:45:49

Care4Suffolk has never been against growth. Care4Suffolk advocates for responsible growth which is not the same as being against it, despite Mr. Rector’s comment. We want growth that is fiscally responsible and supported by infrastructure. Some of our members are life-long residents and some have moved here quite recently. We don’t weigh people’s concerns by their time spent living in our city. We are all entitled to share thoughts and concerns.

What Care4Suffolk has spent considerable time on, over the past two years, is the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. When we first heard from Council Member Williams about the new comp plan back in the fall of 2022, we were very excited and made a focused attempt to encourage citizen participation to help shape this document that will have a lasting impact on the future of Suffolk.

We were the group that hosted the first public forum for the city to meet with residents so the city could explain the process and the public could share their thoughts and concerns. That was back in November 2022. The event was so successful that the city decided to host a series of public engagement sessions throughout the city. Through the early part of 2023, Care4Suffolk’s outreach team went to great efforts distributing the city’s literature on the comp plan to community groups and churches, going door-to-door throughout neighborhoods, and handing out information outside the local grocery stores. We posted flyers in public places, wrote about it on our website and facebook group, and encouraged as many people to participate as possible. We were very much a part of the unprecedented community engagement that Council Member Rector mentioned when he stated, “In the three years that this process has been unfolding, the level of community engagement has been unprecedented.” (November 20, 2024 City Council Meeting, mark 2:44:07 – 2:44:25)

We were excited about the new comp plan and wanted the voice of the people represented in the new document. Our dismay was palpable when we finally got a chance to see the draft. Everything from the growth areas, to the objectives, to the focus on the economic development as it relates to the port was a huge disappointment. We bore witness to the public engagement sessions when the citizens said that they wanted economic growth focused on downtown, when they said they didn’t want any more warehouses, and when they said they cared about the character of the city they call home. If you look at the summaries of the public feedback from the city itself (not the cherry picked comments Mr. Rector shared) you will see what the citizens requested.

Despite what Council Member Rector says, we have not been advocating for “incorporating all of the changes that people want” but we certainly expected that the vision and direction of this plan would be a representation of the summary of the public’s feedback. Instead, Suffolk will be home to all the warehousing and workforce housing needed by the Port of Virginia, much to the delight of the developers. The citizens are upset this is the direction the city took, DESPITE all the feedback the public gave. It is Mr. Rector’s hyperbole, not the citizens’ comments, that mischaracterizes the situation.

Our criticism for the new comp plan draft did not materialize overnight, nor has it come from a place of fear, emotion, or ignorance, as some council members would have you believe. On the contrary, we have been a part of this process from very early on. We have been watching, participating, and most importantly, sharing. We have shared public engagement opportunities, facts and data about the draft and land use issues, and important information from City Council meetings.

Yes, we are organized, as are other community groups, and many of us do show up to meetings. Yet, we are not the citizens that Mr. Rector wants to represent. He chooses instead to represent those who benefit from growth and don’t vote in Suffolk (out of town developers maybe?)

Council Member Rector sat up on the dais and claimed the following:

“The folks that are against growth are here, established, and have organized their voices. They are also the ones, as we found out, who vote, so their voices will be heard. The folks that would potentially benefit from growth are not here. They are not established, and they probably do not vote in Suffolk. The reason is that these people don’t know who they are. They could be the high school sophomore that in six to seven years, when they graduate from college, might have a house and a job to come to. Or they are the folks maybe living outside the area that might get transferred here. So obviously they are not here to advocate for the plan.”

November 20, 2024 City Council Meeting, mark 2:47:57 – 2:48:37

Is Council Member Rector seriously suggesting that he is more interested in representing the theoretical interests of potential future residents of Suffolk and hypothetical individuals, from whom he has not heard and who may not even exist? Yet he seems sure they would be advocating for the plan.

Suffolk resident’s, especially those in the Suffolk Borough, note Council Member Rector’s words. Actual Suffolk residents, including those who vote, those who take the time to show up to meetings, and those who make the effort to write comments – you are NOT the people that Council Member Rector will represent with his vote.

Council Members Rector stated towards the end of his speech:

“When you have the diversity of interest that we have here in Suffolk, we should not as a council, let one group or one interest dominate the plan and the future of the city.”

November 20, 2024 City Council Meeting, mark 2:49:04 – 2:49:13

This was in fact the point of the public comments made by Care4Suffolk (see below for pdf attachment of our comments). The Port of Virginia and developers have had a heavy influence on the Suffolk 2045 Comprehensive Plan, more so than the citizens of Suffolk. (For more information see here, here, and here.) This plan is supposed to represent the needs and wants of people of Suffolk; any benefit to the port should be secondary to the will of the people. The citizens told the city what they wanted, but the city still refuses to listen.

Care4Suffolk has been very consistent with its message: this is not about being against growth or development. We want the city to listen to the wishes of its people:

The citizens are sick of warehouses – this plan will add millions, even tens of millions, more square feet of warehousing.
The citizens want economic development focused on downtown Suffolk – this plan encourages growth on the corridors.
The citizens want safe, walkable communities – this plan opens up more residential land use near warehouses.
The citizens want to preserve farmland – this plan allows for development on farmland.
The citizens want the growth to slow down and allow infrastructure to catch up – yet the city increased the growth areas to the largest of any previous plan, accelerating growth in Suffolk.

These were all part of the feedback from citizens during the public engagement sessions. We have been saying this since the draft came out. Of all the changes that Mr. Rector references, the only concession the city made was to scale back the growth areas, but they are still larger than the previous draft increases. The focus of this plan has not changed – it is still about the port, warehouses, and suburban sprawl.

The fiscal analysis for the comp plan, something done by previous Suffolk City Councils and done by other cities throughout Hampton Roads for their comp plans, is impossible for this council and this city staff. We ask too much to request it. We are presenting data and asking them to do the same, instead they are going by ‘feels’. They don’t care about having a data driven plan, yet they mock us and call us emotional. Why are Council Members so upset that the public keeps telling them what we want them, our elected officials to do?

It is completely inappropriate for Council Members to criticize the public while sitting on the dais. It is a form of intimidation. Many citizens are not used to public speaking and don’t write to the public on a regular basis. When they do take the time to exercise their right to do so, they should not be subjected to bullying by Council Members. Is the intent to make citizens think twice about sharing their views – especially if they differ from those on Council?

Just because some Council Members have already made their decision, doesn’t mean that the public should be discouraged from expressing their thoughts and concerns. It is our constitutional right to petition our government.

Except that right doesn’t extend to Wednesday, December 18, 2024. City Council has refused the citizens a public hearing on the comp plan during that Council meeting. City Council will be receiving a briefing of the comp plan changes, which may contain significant changes including to the growth areas. The public will have no chance to review these changes and share their concerns before Council votes on the comp plan.

But don’t worry, even if it passes, in the words of Council Member Roger Fawcett, “It’s not the worst plan in the world.” A ringing endorsement indeed!

It’s no wonder some Council Members feel the need to shove this comp plan vote through despite public opposition. They can never actually find anything good to say about it but want it anyway. Some would rather criticize citizens than justify their vote – just what citizens want in their public officials, right?

“It’s not the worst plan in the world,” says Council Member Fawcett, November 20, 2024 City Council Meeting, mark 3:07:50 – 3:07:53

Link to full City of Suffolk City Council Meeting, November 20, 2024

Link to Care4Suffolk’s August 2024 City Council Meeting public comment

Link to Care4Suffolk’s November 2024 City Council Meeting public comment

criticizing citizens – Care4Suffolk

Citizens Criticized for Speaking Out