transportation – Care4Suffolk

More Comp Plan Confusion: Master Transportation Plan Recap

Care4Suffolk — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 06:55:00 +0000

The Master Transportation Plan (MTP) as it is associated with the 2045 Comprehensive Plan became a topic of discussion at the May 2024 City Council/Planning Commission joint meeting. There was concern that there wasn’t one included as part of the 2045 Plan draft.

At the August 21st City Council public hearing on the 2045 Plan, the Master Transportation Plan became a main topic of discussion and clearly was the main reason why council decided to delay voting on the comp plan until November 20th. Mayor Duman emphasized the need for it a couple times and City Manager Al Moore assured him that staff had been working on it.

After this August meeting, Care4Suffolk submitted a FOIA request for Master Transportation Plan documentation that had been done thus far. The response was a memo from VHB, a consultant used by the City, that included a cover letter, which you can see below, dated May 23, 2024, along with nine other pages of conceptual/visionary road alignment images and descriptions.

We submitted a second FOIA request in early September to learn what additional work had been completed on the MTP, but instead we received the exact same memo again. Was there really no additional work done since this May memo, even though it was intended to be part of a MTP and after it became a big issue at a City Council public hearing?

Considering that there appeared to be no new progress on the MTP in early September, we were very surprised to see it show up as a topic on the agenda for the September 24th joint City Council/School Board meeting. It actually ended up not being discussed. A few weeks later, we acquired an email that seemed to explain why they decided not to bring up the Master Transportation Plan at this meeting.

The email was from Public Works Director, Robert Lewis, to the city manager’s office stating that he was “at a loss as to what is desired.” How could this be if staff had been working on it and it was supposed to be “pretty solid” by November 20th according to City Manager Al Moore’s comments back in August?

Also around early September, we discovered that VDOT is supposed to review comprehensive plans, which should be submitted to them 90 days prior to adoption. A reminder had actually been put out at a September regional transportation meeting.

It turns out, Suffolk planners did not submit the 2045 Comp Plan to VDOT for review until October 2nd. Why wasn’t the comp plan submitted to VDOT before it went to Planning Commission in July? There were three public hearings on the comp plan before it went to VDOT! And why did they submit it before a Master Transportation Plan was done?

To top that off, City Council got a confusing presentation about the MTP during their October 16th Work Session that seemed to contradict the direction they gave in August. To summarize this meeting:

– No Master Transportation Plan was presented; the consultant (VHB) just provided a briefing with a basic outline of a plan

– Coucilmember Butler Barlow asked who VHB was; they were not part of the original comp plan consulting team; it turns out they are a firm that Suffolk has had an ongoing contract with for many years

– When Councilmember Johnson pressed staff on why the plan wasn’t ready, Public Works Director, Robert Lewis said that their vision was for the MTP to be a stand-alone document, that it still needed work and would need to be approved at a later time

– Mayor Duman also expressed concern that the MTP was not further along already

Despite having their guidance pretty much ignored, no one on City Council pushed back very much.

We actually already wrote about this work session and included a few video clips here:

https://care4suffolk.org/2024/10/26/city-councils-comp-plan-confusion/

Just two weeks after this work session, it appears that city Staff decided to take it upon themselves to change the goal posts on the Master Transportation Plan yet again. The suffolk2045.org webpage was updated, and an email to the public sent out, stating that new changes to the comp plan reflect Council’s directions from August to “provide additional project-specific detail and direction for the transportation policy” and that this additional work had been completed.

This is not an accurate reflection of City Council’s guidance and contradicts the comments about a stand-alone document from just two weeks earlier. It is also concerning that they were making yet more changes to the comp plan’s transportation chapter after it was already submitted to VDOT.

Deputy City Manager, Kevin Hughes, sent an email to city council members over a week after these changes were posted informing them that the MTP is now included in Chapter 4 of the 2045 Plan.

To top off all this confusion, we now see that City Council is supposed to be getting an update on the 2045 Plan during their work session on November 20th–the very same day that they are supposed to be voting on it!

Whether a Master Transportation Plan is a separate document or included as part of the comprehensive plan is not the main concern. It is the way this matter has been handled that is very concerning. It appears that City Staff are not following procedure and are also either very disorganized or not being forthright with City Council and the public. Perhaps it’s both.

Timeline of Master Transportation Plan Events:

May 2024

Parts of MTP worked on by consultant and shared as such with the Planning Department

MTP is a concern at joint City Council/Planning Commission meeting

June & July 2024

No discussion of MTP

August 2024

MTP is a main concern for City Council (Aug 21); they want one ready before they vote

Al Moore says it’s underway and will be solid enough by Nov; the vote is tabled until Nov 20th

FOIA request (Aug 22) – received memo/concept diagrams done by consultant in May

September 2024

FOIA request (Sept 9) – received the same memo/concept diagrams done by consultant in May, nothing new

MTP is on joint meeting agenda (Sept 24)

– Mr. Lewis unsure of vision for this agenda item

– MTP not discussed at the meeting

October 2024

2045 Plan initial submission to VDOT (Oct 2)

City Council work session: staff says there is no MTP yet

It will be stand-alone, living document and be approved at a later date

MTP page and visionary project diagrams are added to Ch. 4 of comp plan (Oct 29)

November 2024

Kevin Hughes sends an email to City Council telling them that the MTP is now in Ch. 4 (Nov 8)

November 20th City Council agendas are posted online (Nov14) and a 2045 Comp Plan Update is scheduled for their work session that same day

City Council’s Comp Plan Confusion

Care4Suffolk — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 15:54:13 +0000

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.

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.