warehouses – Care4Suffolk

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.

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.

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.

Servants of the Port

Care4Suffolk — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:59:46 +0000

The May 1st joint Planning Commission/City Council work session on the 2045 Comprehensive Plan concluded with uncertainty and a clear discomfort with the size of the proposed new Growth Area and the amount of land designated for “Employment Centers” (and identified by the color purple on the land use map).

Future Land Use Map June 18, 2024. No longer distinguishes between current and future Growth Areas, so the added Growth Areas have been circled in red by us.

During the recent June 18th Planning Commission Work Session about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan Draft, there was the impression that despite a reduction in the proposed Rt. 460 Growth Area, the amount of purple on the maps is still making people nervous. Planning and city management spent a lot of time trying to provide some assurance about this and presented some new twists on justifying more “Employment Centers.”

Comparison of warehouse development over time.

One new tactic was to give sort of a history of warehouse development, showing that the current industrial areas have been built out over time. It seemed they were trying to demonstrate that some of the purple areas within the current growth areas aren’t new and that we need more to support the Port’s needs. What this part of the presentation really demonstrated was how much warehouse space Suffolk already has! We already know we have the most in all of Hampton Roads: 21,683,290 square feet!

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

There was also a pie chart to compare the percentages of the Future Land Use Types as they are recommending them. It seemed that they wanted to show that because Rural Agriculture and Parks & Open Space are the highest in percentage versus other land use types, the purple “Employment Centers” are insignificant–nothing to worry about!

Land Use by acreage - demonstrates that small percentages of intense development can have huge impacts on infrastructure and quality of life.

However, there was no clarification that a lot of land in the Rural Agriculture category are areas that used to fall under the land use types of Forestry and Wetlands, including the Great Dismal Swamp. Another point they never mention is that just because land falls in an agriculture category or zoning, does not mean it’s actually tillable land that can be farmed.

What is really telling with the pie chart though is that it really demonstrates that small percentages of intense development can have huge impacts on infrastructure and quality of life. Most people see and feel this everyday here now (except some city planners and managers, apparently!)

We may have a lot of open space, but our current growth areas are struggling under the recent growth and it seems city planners’ only answer is to continue letting that bleed out into our unprepared rural areas.

Slide explaining new secondary use of Employment Centers.

Another curious new effort to improve the image of “Employment Centers” is to allow for a new “secondary use” of vacant “Employment Center” buildings (of which there should be none if the need is so great!) This new use is labeled “Compatible Adaptive Reuse of Existing Employment Center Buildings.” It’s simple! The intent is to “Allow for the adaptive reuse of existing vacant buildings to non-employment center uses that are compatible with adjacent uses, building characteristics, site design and facility location. Such uses may include but are not limited to: indoor or outdoor recreation, public gathering and places of assembly. “(Page 50)

The City’s idea is to keep the land use ‘flexible’ by allowing almost any type of non-residential use to go there. This completely contradicts the ‘predictable’ part of the planning they say they are trying to accomplish.

Halfway through the 30-plus slide presentation, there was a somewhat bizarre attempt to focus on talking about Smart Growth. (Actually, not really talking about it so much as just using the phrase.)

We have yet to see one time where anyone who brings up Smart Growth actually explains what it is or specifies any Smart Growth principles they may be referring to. It’s especially odd considering that when you search for the phrase “Smart Growth” in the 2045 comp plan draft it comes up zero times. (Even in the 2026 and 2035 Comp Plans it only comes up a handful of times, and mostly about school facility planning.)

One of the main Smart Growth principles is to contain development where infrastructure is already in place. Two city planners mentioned Smart Growth and then proceeded to talk about extending water, sewer, and road improvements into current agricultural lands, so that they are ready for development which will make them more attractive to developers to build there. That is NOT Smart Growth, that is sprawl!

With each new meeting, the City presents information that addresses what they see as our (the public’s) main concerns. However, they are missing the crux of the issue. The citizens of Suffolk already told the City in the 7,500+ unique comments what we want. Overwhelmingly, people are fed up with the handling of development in the last decade. Instead of actually LISTENING to the citizens, they pat themselves on the back for gathering the comments, and then go on to do more of the same. It is not what we asked for and it isn’t what we want. According to the City Planner giving the presentation, not everyone will be happy with the plan, which is true, but there are clearly other ‘stakeholders’ more important to them than the citizens. The City is intent on making Suffolk a servant of the Port over the wishes of the people.

Slide showing the public comments the City received throughout the process.

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

Land Use Change with 2045 Comp Plan

Care4Suffolk — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 20:24:11 +0000

The 2045 Comprehensive Plan that will be coming before City Council on August 21st for consideration will have substantial changes in Land Use for the residents of Suffolk. It is important that the citizens of Suffolk understand the changes that will come if the 2045 Comprehensive Plan is approved.

At the June 18, 2024 Planning Commission Work Session, the Staff addressed a concern they were hearing, specifically about the large amount of purple on the map, the “Employment Centers”. These Employment Centers are where warehouses can be built. The Staff assured Planning Commission, and the public, that the increase in this land use type is only a 14% increase from the current industrial land use.

See for yourself. Below are two images, with the ability to slide between the Current Land Use (left) and compare it to the Future Land Use (right). On both maps, the purple areas are the Industrial Land Use/Employment Centers. Does that look like a 14% increase to you?

There is a diamond shaped cursor in the map. Slide it left and right to see the changes in land use that are coming with this new comprehensive plan.

The keys for the two maps are below. In general, green is for agricultural land, open space and parks; yellow to orange is residential; red is commercial; and purple is for industrial where warehouses can be built.

The maps and keys come from the 2045 Comprehensive Plan draft. The Current Land Use map and key are on pages 31-32 and the Future Land Use map and key are on page 41.

Current Land Use Key

Future Land Use Key

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

City’s Vision Lacking: Suffolk to Support Regional Goals

Care4Suffolk — Mon, 06 May 2024 19:44:56 +0000

At the Joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting on May 1, 2024, city leaders highlighted their extraordinary efforts to reach out to the community during the development of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. They were right! They did get a lot of engagement and input from the public and we applaud them for that. Unfortunately, the City didn’t listen to us. This new comprehensive plan is NOT reflective of the comments from the citizens of Suffolk.

We said that we want to maintain our small town feel, preserve our open space, focus on creating a vibrant and flourishing downtown, have affordable housing, and respect our agricultural history. The public feedback overwhelmingly told the City that we are growing too fast and our infrastructure can’t keep up. The citizens want to maintain what makes us special: a city with a small town feel and strong agricultural roots.

In contrast, City Staff chose to focus this new comprehensive plan on Regionalism and Suffolk’s role in the economic engine that is the Port of Virginia. The City’s vision for Suffolk’s future is one of warehouses, congested roads, and suburban sprawl.

Why do the citizens of Suffolk have to sacrifice our wide-open spaces, prime farmland, and our small-town feel, to make room for more warehouses, more truck traffic, and more suburban sprawl?

Instead of taking this public feedback and creating a vision the people can support, the City disregarded our desires in order to follow ‘recent trends’ and capitalize on the Port of Virginia. As citizens of Suffolk, we deserve better! We deserve a comprehensive plan that is focused on OUR priorities, encompassing the values we have and not just paying lip-service to them.

What if, instead of focusing on being one of the fastest growing cities in Virginia, we focus on being the city everyone wants to visit? What if we take the special qualities we already have and make them more visible and interconnected? An alternative vision for Suffolk is one where nature, agriculture and a vibrant and thriving downtown come together. We can achieve this if we discard that vision of warehouse and suburban sprawl and instead look inwards on how we can improve the Suffolk we have.

Tourism in Suffolk had an economic impact of $217.8 million in 2022. Compare that to neighboring Chesapeake, with almost $800 million dollars of impact; it is clear there is significant room for growth in the tourism industry here. (source) Even more impressively, the greater Richmond area brought in $3.5 billion in direct tourist spending in 2022 ,with Henrico County alone accounting for $1.7 billion dollars of that tourist money. (source) Richmond and its surrounding areas focus on youth sports. Suffolk should have its own focus and is well-poised to capitalize on its small-town charm, agricultural community and its ecological and outdoor adventure possibilities.

Suffolk already has so much to offer with its unique character, history, and culture. It is rich in natural resources with a mild climate that allows for year-round outdoor activity. Our villages each have their own charm and there are abundant historical sites throughout the City. A more focused emphasis on connecting our parks, waterways, bike paths, historical sites, cultural attractions, and small businesses would enhance the community both for residents and visitors.

Agriculture is the single largest private industry in the state, generating roughly $462 million of direct and indirect economic impact for the City of Suffolk. (source) It can be the key to Suffolk’s future if we let it. “Agritourism” is a growing subset of tourism. People are looking for that authentic experience and the opportunity to connect with nature and the rural environment. One way we could invest in our agricultural community is with the construction of an agricultural complex that could serve as a venue to draw visitors and farmers from around the state and beyond. It could host everything from horse shows to dog shows, livestock events, chicken swaps, tractor pulls, and educational opportunities with organizations like 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

Our local agricultural community could be the backbone of a new public market that could be located downtown. Public markets can be a driving economic force in communities, as well as a public space for increasing social integration and providing opportunities for social mobility. (source) They provide access to the marketplace for small local businesses, serve as a supply of fresh produce in food deserts, offer a venue for local artists and musicians, and have the ability to draw people from throughout the city and surrounding areas as a tourist destination. A public market could link the rural areas of Suffolk to our downtown, revitalizing it with new economic opportunities and bringing people together.

A passenger rail stop downtown could generate even more tourism. Amtrak reported record ridership to Newport News, Norfolk, and Richmond with over 92,610 riders in March 2024, up 24% from the previous March. (source) According to Michigan State University, tourism has become one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors and can be a “key economic driver of socio-economic progress through the creation of jobs, new business, export revenues and infrastructure development.” (source)

Instead of building suburban sprawl outside the downtown area that will incur more heavy long-term infrastructure costs, we can focus on infill towards our city center. A thousand more tightly-packed single-family homes built on farmland and priced at $400,000 will not help with the affordable housing crisis in our city. We don’t have to build houses for everyone to move to Suffolk–instead, let’s make it a priority to build affordable housing for our citizens already living in Suffolk.

Warehouses may bring some economic benefit to a city, but it is accompanied by heavy truck traffic, air and noise pollution. They are unsightly and do not instill public pride or contribute to the social and cultural experiences of a city. By contrast, agriculture, tourism and a public market can enhance a community on many levels, contributing to economic development while preserving natural resources. These things can become a source of pride for our city.

A commitment to stop paving over our farmland could bring about a future for Suffolk that ties us together. Things like a passenger rail stop, a public market, and an agricultural complex, along with increased interconnectivity of our parks, trails, waterways, historic sites and villages, could provide us a thriving downtown and preserve our agricultural lands for generations to come.

This vision is in line with the public feedback the City received – serving as the warehouse capital of Virginia is not. Let’s focus on what makes Suffolk special. Let’s say no to the vision in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and ask the City to envision a better future for Suffolk.

This is just one alternative vision for Suffolk. It’s not perfect, but I think it is a great improvement over warehouses and suburban sprawl. What are your ideas and thoughts about what we can do to create a better future for our city? Please comment below or email us at care4suffolk@gmail.com to share your ideas.

How do the competing visions of Agriculture & Tourism v. Warehouses
compare with Public Input? See for yourself in the charts below:

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

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.

Get Ready, More Warehouses are Coming to Suffolk

Care4Suffolk — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 15:43:07 +0000

The new 2045 Comprehensive Plan draft drastically increases the Growth Area in Suffolk, by enlarging the existing one by almost 25%, which is unprecedented in the history of Suffolk’s comprehensive plans. The Growth Area is important because it lets developers know in which areas the city (not necessarily the citizens) wants to see more development.

In addition to expanding the Growth Area, our city managers have created a Future Land Use Map. This map shows what type of development (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) the city would like to see in different areas, which is often very different from the actual, current zoning. If you haven’t looked at your home’s location, you should check it out and see what will be changing near you.

If this plan is approved as it is, Chuckatuck and Sleepy Hole will be seeing an increase in suburban residential development. Whaleyville is about to see an increase in warehouses. Cypress and Nansemond will see increases in both suburban residential and warehouses, while Holy Neck is about to take the brunt of the expansion with enormous increases in both warehouses and suburban residential developments. Holy Neck residents: the city can’t commit to building a rec center in your borough in the next 5 years, but they can guarantee you will get more warehouses!

The term ‘Employment Center’ is now the Land Use Type name they want to use for areas where city managers want to allow warehouses and manufacturing. If you are wondering how much these ‘Employment Center’ areas are set to expand, you will be disappointed to know that the city hasn’t measured it. When specifically asked, what is the area of all land currently zoned industrial as well as the area of the proposed ‘Employment Center’ land use category, the city planner responded that the area in the plan ‘has not been calculated in this way’ and that this isn’t ‘an engineering project’.

The Planning Department stated during a comprehensive plan briefing at the February 7th City Council meeting (mark 19:47) that, “You want to make decisions based on good data.” So why have they not used basic metrics like area? Land is a limited resource. How can you plan without measuring how much we currently have zoned for industrial and how much we want in the future?

Maybe they don’t want to measure because they don’t want to tell us how much area they are expanding for warehouses. (It is about four times the current industrial-zoned areas, by an eye-ball measurement, and sadly, that is the best info we were able to get off the provided maps.)

Interestingly, listed as THE TOP, #1, Objective and Action in the ECONOMIC section of the new comprehensive plan, is this plan to build a publicly owned commerce/industrial park:

E.1 Attract and retain employment-generating industries. (p. 80, 2045 Comprehensive Plan Draft)

E.1.1 Develop a publicly owned commerce/industrial park to promote diverse industry growth in support of higher-paying jobs. The site should be aligned with the Virginia Business Ready program (VBRSP) to leverage the visibility and funding opportunities available at the state level. VBRSP grants are awarded to assist with the costs of site assessment and work (rezoning, surveying, infrastructure improvements, etc.) necessary to increase a site’s development readiness.

City planners won’t measure the area they want to expand for warehouses and logistic centers, but they know they want to develop a publicly owned commerce/industrial park? Where is this park going to be? How big will it be? It is hard to imagine they spent two years on this draft, list this as the #1 economic priority and don’t know what they are planning. Where is the transparency?

They will also tell you that zoning and land use type are not the same. However, the wording in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan says differently. Check out the sections below that clearly talk about changing the zoning to match the Future Land Use map.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS (p. 64, 2045 Comprehensive Plan Draft)

L.1 Focus development in designated Growth Areas and promote development that is consistent with the Future Land Use and Growth Areas Map.

L.1.1 Review development proposals for consistency with the Future Land Use and Growth Areas Map, the Future Land Use Types described and mapped in this chapter, and the Guiding Values, Land Use Principals, Objectives and Actions adopted in this plan.

2.1.2 Review and revise current development regulations, including the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and the zoning map, to improve compatibility with the comprehensive plan.

Priority areas for consideration include:

• Downtown Mixed Use Core & Adjacent Neighborhoods

• North Suffolk Mixed Use Core

• Opportunities to Promote Affordable Housing

• Opportunities to Promote Master-Planned Traditional Neighborhood Developments

• Rural Villages/VC Zoning District

• Consistency with Use District and Place Type Definitions and the Future Land Use Plan

Integration into City Operations and Processes

Regulatory Updates (p. 153, 2045 Comprehensive Plan Draft)

Revisions to the City’s zoning code and other regulations should be made in accordance with the plan. The process for updating the zoning code will be led by City Staff in collaboration with the Planning Commission and will be determined following the adoption of the plan. This will provide the City with the regulatory authority to enforce recommendations in the Future Land Use Map and promote other desired outcomes expressed through the plan’s actions.

Private Development Decisions (p. 152, 2045 Comprehensive Plan Draft)

Property owners and developers should consider the principles, objectives, and actions in the plan in their land planning and investment decisions. Public decision-makers will be using the plan as a guide in their development deliberations such as zoning matters and infrastructure requests. Property owners and developers should be cognizant of and complement the plan’s recommendations.

If you don’t like what you see in the Land Use map, don’t count on the process of rezoning with a public hearing to help you fight it. The city is being perfectly clear that they want to streamline this process. They want to make it easier for developers to look at the map and, regardless of the zoning, allow them to develop based on the Land Use Map. The city is helping developers rezone the land with this document. This is yet more evidence that this new plan is written with the developers in mind and not the citizens.

This can not be stressed enough. This new comprehensive plan is designed to make it easier for developers to build even when it doesn’t match the zoning. If you do not want what is proposed in the Land Use Map, NOW is the time to act and let City Council know. If you don’t want to see four times the amount of warehouses we already have, you need to tell them now. If you are waiting to give your input during a future rezoning application, it will be too late!

Let City Council know what you think about this new growth area: council@suffolkva.us

Michael D. Duman, Mayor

mayor@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-514-4009

Lue R. Ward, Jr., Vice Mayor

(Nansemond Borough)

nansemond@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-377-6929

Shelley Butler Barlow,

Council Member

(Chuckatuck Borough)

chuckatuck@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-346-8355

Leroy Bennett, Council Member
(Cypress Borough)
cypress@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-407-3750

Timothy J. Johnson, Council Member
(Holy Neck Borough)
holyneck@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-407-0556

Roger W. Fawcett, Council Member
(Sleepy Hole Borough)
sleepyhole@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-377-8641

John Rector, Council Member
(Suffolk Borough)
suffolk@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-407-1953

LeOtis Williams, Council Member

(Whaleyville Borough)

whaleyville@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-402-7100

Fawcett Says Developers Built Suffolk. Did They Write Our New Comp Plan as Well?

Care4Suffolk — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 12:21:18 +0000

The State of Virginia requires cities to have a comprehensive plan, and according to state law: “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.”

The question is, how much of this plan, which is supposed to protect our best interests as citizens, was instead influenced by developers? City Council Member Roger Fawcett says developers built our city and that they did a great job. (See video at the end)

Did developers help write the draft of Suffolk’s new 2045 Comprehensive Plan, too? It reads like they did. It certainly reflects a change from a focus on Suffolk, its people, heritage, and communities from the previous plan, to a focus on development. Just look at the Introduction and the “Guiding Values”.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the 2035 Comprehensive Plan passed in 2015 and currently in effect with the new draft set to be voted on this year. When passed it will take effect immediately (despite the 2045 year plastered on there. The 2026 plan passed in 2006 and then was replaced in 2015, so the plan years don’t really mean very much.)

2035 Comprehensive Plan

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Maintain an efficient transportation network with effective choices for mobility. This plan emphasizes two major issues relating to transportation: connectivity and transportation options. The current development pattern is largely automobile-oriented with congestion occurring in many areas of the City due to limited paths between population centers and heavily-used freight rail lines. Efforts have been made to improve the walkability of existing and new developments; however, pedestrian and bicycle connections are still needed throughout the City.

Maintain an efficient transportation network with effective choices for mobility. In any growing community that is focused on expanding economic development opportunity, new development can be expected to contribute to increased traffic. The current development pattern in Suffolk is largely automobile-oriented with congestion between population centers and freight rail lines. However, this plan provides an opportunity to look at land use and transportation together and develop strategies that will both support economic prosperity and quality of life. Efforts have been made to improve the walkability of existing and new developments. Transit will continue to be emphasized to help with citywide connectivity.

The title of the section stays the same, but the overall tone and the emphasis is different. In the 2035 plan, they acknowledged there are traffic issues with regard to roads and railroad lines. They have had 10 years to fix this situation (that is the point of these comprehensive plans, right?) and it has only gotten worse. In the 2045 plan draft, they just come out and say what we already see as our reality: if you continue to grow, you will continue to get traffic.

They use the term ‘economic’ twice in the paragraph that the title says is about ‘efficient transportation’, and now they are basically telling citizens they just have to deal with the traffic. Here I am a little confused, because I keep being told by city managers, the planning department, and many of the city council members that the ONLY way to improve our roads is to develop. Yet with all the development in the last decade, we have more congestion, our roads are less safe, and in the document that is all about future planning, their guiding value for traffic is just deal with it!?

And in case you thought the solution would include alternative forms of transportation, they removed the part about “pedestrian and bicycle connections are still needed throughout the City” and replaced it with improved walkability in new development. See, all these new developments they are building off of these narrow country roads will have sidewalks. Perfect! People can walk to their neighbor’s house safely, but no further, because most of these developments do not connect significantly with the day-to-day needs of the people, so they will still be driving everywhere. They are planning on improving the transit system, so I will give them kudos for that, but won’t hold my breath.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

Define and enhance the various unique character types and development patterns within the City. Suffolk features areas of unique character throughout the City – from its rural agricultural areas and villages, to its dense and bustling downtown. Maintaining this variation and enhancing valued place types ensures that existing residents can continue to enjoy the areas they love, while future residents can enjoy the community choices and beautiful landscapes that exist today.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Support and enhance variety in character and types of places in the City. Community members have emphasized that the diversity of place types in Suffolk and the many lifestyles they help support are great strengths for the community. This includes rural and agricultural areas and villages, a mixed-use downtown, and newer neighborhoods in the north. Maintaining this variety and enhancing valued place types will ensure both that community members can continue to enjoy the areas they love and that new development further improves upon these places.

In the 2035 plan and the previous 2026 plan, they only increased the growth area by small, incremental amounts. Their focus was still maintaining the distinct character throughout the city. I think since the passage of the 2035 plan, the city managers have fallen short of that by allowing huge warehouses in residential neighborhoods and by increasing the suburban sprawl into agricultural areas. In the 2045 plan, they talk about preserving them as a value, but the growth area is set to expand by about 25%. A drastic increase in development is the opposite of preserving. It is set up to bring in warehouses and logistic centers as well as continue to build large densely packed suburban neighborhoods in rural areas.

At the end they threw in the statement, “Maintaining this variety and enhancing valued place types will ensure both that community members can continue to enjoy the areas they love and that new development further improves upon these places.” In the last sentence, they actually took out the part about enjoying “beautiful landscapes that exist today” and added “new development further improves upon these places.” I really want the city managers to explain how more warehouses and logistic centers will further improve upon any area in Suffolk. These changes may seem small at first glance, but there is a dramatic shift from the people to development, which is of course in the best interest of developers.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

Promote a diverse housing stock, providing options in terms of type, location, and affordability. Changing trends in the housing market constantly support the case for providing housing options. Dense communities, attached single-family homes, and rental units are drawing consumer attention. Additionally, to maintain a competitive workforce across multiple industries and pay grades, variation within the housing stock is an asset.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Promote a diverse housing stock, providing options in terms of type, location, and affordability. Changing trends in the housing market support the case for policies that could increase choice in housing options with respect to both unit types and price points. High-quality, mixed-use, and multifamily communities with a range of housing types, including housing on smaller lots and with fewer maintenance needs, continue to be in demand locally and nationally, especially among young people just starting out and older adults. It is also important in order to maintain a competitive workforce across multiple industries and pay grades. This includes both new housing and infill housing in existing neighborhoods. Local and regional examples of new housing development that have been constructed since the last comprehensive plan was adopted provide models that can be instructive for the future.

The 2035 plan value on housing sounds great. Suffolk does need a variety of housing options and needs more affordable housing. The 2045 plan contains this as well, so no complaints there. However, the first highlighted statement fragment seems oddly specific and isn’t actually true.

“…including housing on smaller lots and with fewer maintenance needs, continue to be in demand locally and nationally…”

According to James Hughes, a land developer in Charleston, the smaller lots are actually designed to make “entitlement groups” (those that buy land speculatively, rezone it and sell lots to builders) the maximum amount of profits by squeezing the most number of lots they can into a plan. It has nothing to do with what consumers want, or what builders would build on. It is due to the greed of these entitlement groups, that this is what is available.

And that’s not to say there is anything wrong with houses on smaller lots. We need variety: small lots, medium lots, big lots, townhomes, condos, apartments, single family homes, etc.. However, the vast majority of the new construction of single family homes doesn’t actually offer variety. It offers small lots because the person rezoning the land wants to maximize his profit and the city managers allow it. Its addition to the new comp plan draft just sounds like a developer marketing talking point. Maybe that’s because I heard these same words come out of the developer’s representative during a rezoning hearing.

The 2045 plan mentions infill is important and I agree with that wholeheartedly. Infill development is building on unused and underutilized land. It is aimed at areas with existing transportation and utility infrastructure. It repurposes or replaces existing buildings, parking lots, or other impervious areas to add homes and/or businesses near the center of cities and towns. It is a sound planning principle that keeps development close to the city center. It is better for infrastructure costs and helps create economic opportunities for downtown areas.

However, this isn’t how most of the development in Suffolk has been happening in the last decade. The city managers have been happy to have developers gobble up large swaths of valuable farmland in rural areas for both warehouses and housing developments and continue the sprawl which is unhealthy for a city. With this new growth area, the sprawl will continue and there will be no real emphasis on infill. They say so themselves:

“Local and regional examples of new housing development that have been constructed since the last comprehensive plan was adopted provide models that can be instructive for the future.”

The city plans to continue to promote these practices and they are clear about it.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

Protect the natural, cultural, and historical assets of the City. During public meetings, residents emphasized the value of Suffolk’s natural assets. The rural open spaces, an undisturbed rural night sky, the character-defining waterways, and the Great Dismal Swamp are treasured in the community and contribute to the quality-of-life. These natural assets, as well as the cultural and historic ties to the Nansemond, the defining early years of America, and agricultural production, are a part of what Suffolk is today, and should be preserved for the enjoyment and enrichment of future residents.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Protect the natural, cultural, and historical assets of the City. Community members have emphasized the value of Suffolk’s natural, cultural, and historic assets. Rural landscapes, parks and open spaces, and wetlands and waterways are treasured in the community and contribute to the quality of life that residents enjoy. These natural assets, as well as the cultural and historic ties to the Nansemond River, the defining early years of America, and agricultural heritage, are a part of what Suffolk is today, and should be preserved for the enjoyment and enrichment of future residents.

These two values are very similar in each plan. I wish I could believe the last sentence. However, this paragraph takes on a new meaning when you look at it as a whole with respect to the guiding values, and in light of the statement below:

“The plan seeks to identify new opportunities to maintain the conservation of natural resources and agricultural areas outside the Growth Area.” (2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT, p. 25)

The city managers aren’t concerned with any conservation in the designated growth areas. This is a big deviation from previous comp plans. In fact, they even want to change anything in the existing growth areas that are still classified agricultural, rural conservation, or wetlands to the new land use types of Employment Center or Suburban Neighborhood. They are also expanding the growth area by nearly 25%. I guess if you move land into the new growth area and state you will only look to preserve these ‘natural assets’ outside that growth area, that makes the job of rezoning those lands for developers much easier.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

Maintain high-quality services and facilities as growth occurs. As growth occurs, existing services and facilities will require maintenance and expansion to accommodate future growth. Facilities and services should be located with current population centers and future growth in mind to ensure that they are accessible from and adequately serve target communities.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Maintain high-quality services and facilities as growth occurs. As growth occurs, existing services, such as public safety, and facilities will require maintenance and expansion. Facilities and services should be located within current population centers and with future growth in mind to ensure that they are accessible from and adequately serve communities. This includes the quality of schools and parks and their relationship to land use and development.

It is great that the city wants to make sure that we as citizens continue to have high-quality services even as we grow, but they haven’t actually done this. Our schools are overcrowded, traffic is horrendous, and our roads are unsafe. Our hospital can’t accommodate demand and we don’t have the required number of teachers or emergency responders that are needed. Citizens are fed up with the growth coming before services, because we suffer as a result. City Council knows this because the citizens have been very vocal about it, including during all the engagement sessions the planning department held for the new comprehensive plan last year.

Every five years or so, the city is required to evaluate the current comprehensive plan and then make changes as necessary. This guiding value should address the previous comprehensive plan’s failure to uphold that value, not simply double down and then ignore it. The changes the city managers are making to the new plan will actually exacerbate these problems, not relieve them.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

Preserve the agricultural heritage and character of the City. This plan continues the ideals of the Comprehensive Plan for 2026 regarding the preservation of agricultural land. The public strongly supported this value during the public meetings, as residents of rural villages and areas emphasized their love for the rural way of life and the general public voiced support of varied landscapes and rural natural assets. As adequate capacity exists within the vicinity of the identified Growth Areas in the central and northern parts of the City, the more rural southern portions of the City will be preserved for low-density agricultural uses.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Preserve the agricultural heritage and character of the City. This plan continues the ideals of the Suffolk 2035 plan regarding the preservation of agricultural land, while recognizing business realities and market forces. It focuses on the idea of providing choices to farmers and agricultural property owners that both encourages the preservation of the rural landscape, where desired, and provides them with flexibility. Related to this idea is the concept of encouraging growth and development in locations with existing infrastructure and supporting placemaking and the concentration of activity in some of the City’s villages. This plan carries forward the idea that more rural southern portions of the City will generally be preserved for agricultural uses.

Let’s start with that second point first:

“It focuses on the idea of providing choices to farmers and agricultural property owners that both encourages the preservation of the rural landscape, where desired, and provides them with flexibility.”

This is exactly the language used by developers during rezoning applications. The farmer’s property rights are sacrosanct to developers. It is the farmer’s land and he should be able to do what he wants with it.

The problem is, the farmer’s do not actually have the right to rezone their land. We wrote about this previously. They can request a rezoning, but it is up to City Council to decide and the public gets to express their concerns. It may be in my best financial interest to put a gas station on my residential lot, but it would negatively impact my neighbors who intentionally purchased their homes to be in a residential neighborhood. The traffic and noise alone would diminish their quality of life. What about their property rights? This is why it is not just up to every resident or land owner to decide what they want to put on their land.

The farmer is free to sell his land as agricultural land anytime he wants. And let’s be really honest here. If a farmer came up and said he wanted to rezone his hundred acres and build 300 new homes, the city wouldn’t let him. There is a reason the farmer has to sell to these “entitlement groups” we spoke of earlier. These people don’t own the land or build the houses, but they know how to get land rezoned and make a bunch of money off of it. None of this is about helping farmers. This is about making it easier for developers. Look at the new growth areas being proposed. The majority of the land in these areas is currently agricultural, much of it currently being farmed. Adding this language to the comprehensive plan makes it that much easier for a developer when he goes before City Council. Now he will be able to quote the Comprehensive Plan (keeping in mind the new plan is really just quoting developers.)

Now let’s talk about the business and market realities. The city managers say they want to preserve agricultural land BUT there are these vague realities of business and market forces that have to be acknowledged. It is as if the city managers don’t know that it is within their purview to keep development out of agricultural areas, if they chose to.This makes it sound like these development decisions are forces beyond the city’s control. They aren’t.

There is room to grow within the current growth area. That is where the city managers should be focusing growth. It might mean that the city has to say no to most of the warehouses that the Port of Virginia would like to see built in Suffolk. It might mean that the city has to tell developers to build housing within the current growth areas. This would actually be best for Suffolk. It would keep development where public services already exist and spur economic development back to the downtown area which needs it. It isn’t that we don’t want any warehouses here – we actually have many. It isn’t that we don’t want new houses built. We recognize the needs for more houses, particularly affordable houses. It means that continuing the sprawl away from downtown Suffolk isn’t good for downtown or for Suffolk as a whole. The city managers work for the citizens of Suffolk. They are supposed to make decisions based on what is best for us.

The developers and builders will build where they are allowed to build. City managers could and should do this in and around the downtown area. Instead, this new comprehensive plan is giving developers exactly what they want. Farmland is cheap (comparable to land already zoned for industrial or residential in the city), flat, and easy to build on. The “entitlement groups” can make way more money building on Suffolk’s prime agricultural land, so why would they make efforts to improve other areas of Suffolk if the city is happy to give them exactly what they want? This is yet another reason why this plan feels like it is more about the developers than the citizens.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

Keep jobs and schools near population centers. A positive mix of jobs, schools, housing, retail, and recreation is the definition of a vibrant city. Single-family homes on large lots promote suburban isolation. The City has made positive steps towards achieving the goal including establishing a framework for incorporating smart growth principles in school planning, which emphasizes working together to make schools the focal point of communities, and the adoption of a mixed use zoning ordinance which allows for jobs and housing to be mixed on the same lot. This plan furthers this goal by promoting mixed use areas in more areas of the City and focusing growth in target areas.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

This Guiding Value did not have an equivalent in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT.

This particular guiding value from the 2035 plan did not have an equivalent in the new draft. It is unfortunate that the city managers chose to cut this section out. The principles of smart growth help make for healthier and safer cities. Smart Growth promotes growth inwards toward city centers and is in opposition to suburban sprawls. This section promotes community, keeping housing next to the places they go: schools, shops, restaurants, work, churches, parks, etc., but I guess that doesn’t really fit with the future sprawl that is in this plan.

2035 Comprehensive Plan

This Guiding Value did not have an equivalent in the 2035 Comprehensive Plan.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Support economic development opportunities with benefits across the community. Suffolk has experienced significant investment in existing and emerging businesses since the last comprehensive plan was adopted. However, while employment has grown, the City and the Hampton Roads region have fallen behind the state as overall GDP has decreased since 2012. Sectors that generate high levels of employment should be targeted in addition to those that support public amenities such as retail and service businesses. Suffolk must position itself competitively both within the region and the state and consider how changes to the concentration of employment in certain industries and commuting patterns relate to land use decisions.

If you had any doubts as to the reason behind the changes in the new draft, it is right here with this new guiding value. I want to start by saying that I think economic growth is important. I don’t think any reasonable person opposes having a strong city economy. However, you will notice that with this new draft, the focus is all on the edges of the growth area in the new land use category: Employment Center. The city managers in their wisdom have decided to call it ‘Employment Center’ when in reality, this is where the new warehouses and logistics centers will be built.

This is NOT the economic growth Suffolk needs. The city receives more tax revenue from commercial properties than they do industrial (which is the zoning that corresponds to this land use category). Additionally, modern warehouses and logistic centers have constant tractor trailer traffic which makes our roads less safe and causes a lot of wear-and-tear on our roads, which ultimately, the citizens will have to cover. They are noisy because trucks come and go at all hours and they pollute.

Look at the map of existing land use below and the accompanying growth area map. (Left Map) The dark purple of the current map is industrial and where warehouses and logistic centers can currently be built. Now look at the growth area map with the land use type Employment Center in light purple. (Right Map) The Employment Center areas in future Suffolk are about four times current industrial zoning. The difference is staggering.

The city is about to offer developers easy access to land to build even more warehouses. This is exactly the OPPOSITE of what the public has told the city during this comprehensive plan process. We already have many warehouses and the citizens are frustrated with the truck traffic, accidents, litter, noise, and pollution that come with it. Instead of the city managers listening to the citizens and limiting warehouse constructions, they are about to make the situation in Suffolk so much worse. This guiding value is all about helping developers build more warehouses. And note, this new guiding value is the only one that uses ‘MUST’ instead of ‘SHOULD’. This differs from the other values about conservation or maintaining high quality services for citizens – those are just ‘SHOULD’. This is a MUST. The push to have warehouses all over Suffolk is a ‘MUST’ for the betterment of the region. This has nothing to do with what is best for the City of Suffolk and its citizens.

Suffolk needs economic investment, but that won’t come with warehouse sprawl. Just like with infill housing, the city needs to focus on bringing commercial business to downtown. Commercial businesses in the form of shops, restaurants, professional offices, corner grocery stores, hi-tech businesses, etc. all bring needed tax dollars while keeping growth where there are already public services. Suffolk is accepting the low hanging fruit instead of doing the hard work of out-of-the box thinking on economic growth. Instead of creating a strong identity for Suffolk and marketing its character, history and beauty, they are offering up Suffolk’s one non-renewable resource – land!

2035 Comprehensive Plan

This Guiding Value did not have an equivalent in the 2035 Comprehensive Plan.

2045 Comprehensive Plan DRAFT

Support Collaborative Regionalism. Suffolk’s roadways, sewer and water service, and solid waste program continue to relate to regional plans and agreements. At the same time, Suffolk’s challenges and opportunities need to be understood in the context of the regional housing and job market. Roadways are impacted by transportation plans made by VDOT and the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO). A Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) federal consent order decree may impact the City’s expansion of its sewer system, while the Western Tidewater Water Authority influences planned water facility development. Likewise, a regional agreement impacts solid waste management within the City. As with the Suffolk 2035 plan, this plan considers these regional conditions when planning for future land use and growth, in recommendations provided for the transportation network, and in provisions of municipal facilities and services to help ensure that future development within Suffolk continues to support and enhance the vision reflected through these regional plans and agreements.

Here is another example of the city managers adding a guiding value that was not here before. The 2035 plan did discuss in parts about Suffolk’s position in the Hampton Roads area. However, it was not the main focus or a guiding value. In this draft they want to make sure that it is clear that all of this is being done to ‘support and enhance’ regional plans. I can translate that for you: the city managers want to turn Suffolk into a dry port. It isn’t just the city managers who want this. The State of Virginia, the Port of Virginia, and all the developers that are about to make a lot of money building warehouses in Suffolk want this. A dry port is an inland location away from a port where all the cargo can be taken and sorted and then sent on its way. A dry port can be a great economic opportunity for a city or community that is economically depressed and is looking to turn old manufacturing locations into warehouses. This does not apply to Suffolk. We are overall economically sound. These warehouses will not be occupying abandoned manufacturing, they will be paving over some of the most fertile soil in Virginia. This will clog our roads, pollute our water, destroy our farmland all in the name of regionalism and to line the pockets of developers. This is Region first, Suffolk last!

I propose that instead, in the name of Regionalism, we give farmers the support they need to continue to provide Suffolk, and the Hampton Roads area, with the many crops they grow that provide us the food we eat and cotton for the clothes we wear. Additionally, I propose that in the name of Regionalism, we stop developing on the reservoirs which pollutes the drinking water of the people of Suffolk, Portsmouth and Norfolk. Let’s NOT expand the growth zone in the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area so that we can continue to protect our waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, a regional treasure. All of this would be for the benefit of Suffolk residents as well as for the region.

If you think the last 10 years has seen a huge shift in Suffolk with the construction of enormous warehouses bringing lines of tractor trailers and huge densely pack housing developments on rural farm roads, and you don’t like the over-crowded schools, heavy traffic, and unsafe road conditions, you need to check out this new comprehensive plan, because it is about to get a whole lot worse.

City Council Member Roger Fawcett speaking at the Suffolk City Council Join Work Session with Suffolk School Board, December 6, 2023.

Mr. Fawcett credits the developers for building this city. He thinks they did a good job. I’m not sure citizens agree. I know I don’t. I don’t fault the developers. This is what they do and they are looking out for their own best interest. I blame the city managers and City Council members who continue to let the developers dictate how growth will happen in our city.

It is the city managers’ and City Council’s responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the citizens of Suffolk, not what is best for developers or the Port of Virginia. Even the State of Virginia says that this plan must be: “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.” This new comprehensive plan is a shift in focus from citizens to developers. This is not what Suffolk wants or needs.

Call or email your City Council member and let them know what you think.

Let City Council know what you think about this new growth area: council@suffolkva.us

Michael D. Duman, Mayor

mayor@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-514-4009

Lue R. Ward, Jr., Vice Mayor

(Nansemond Borough)

nansemond@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-377-6929

Shelley Butler Barlow,

Council Member

(Chuckatuck Borough)

chuckatuck@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-346-8355

Leroy Bennett, Council Member
(Cypress Borough)
cypress@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-407-3750

Timothy J. Johnson, Council Member
(Holy Neck Borough)
holyneck@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-407-0556

Roger W. Fawcett, Council Member
(Sleepy Hole Borough)
sleepyhole@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-377-8641

John Rector, Council Member
(Suffolk Borough)
suffolk@suffolkva.us
Phone: 757-407-1953

LeOtis Williams, Council Member

(Whaleyville Borough)

whaleyville@suffolkva.us

Phone: 757-402-7100

warehouses – Care4Suffolk

CONFIRMED! Suffolk’s Future is to Serve the Port

How Much Will It Cost Us?

Regional Influence to Turn Suffolk into a Dry Port

Voice of the People

Servants of the Port

Future Land Use Map June 18, 2024. No longer distinguishes between current and future Growth Areas, so the added Growth Areas have been circled in red by us.

Comparison of warehouse development over time.

Land Use by acreage - demonstrates that small percentages of intense development can have huge impacts on infrastructure and quality of life.

Slide explaining new secondary use of Employment Centers.

Slide showing the public comments the City received throughout the process.

Land Use Change with 2045 Comp Plan

City’s Vision Lacking: Suffolk to Support Regional Goals

How do the competing visions of Agriculture & Tourism v. Warehouses compare with Public Input? See for yourself in the charts below:

Comprehensive Plan Survey

Get Ready, More Warehouses are Coming to Suffolk

Fawcett Says Developers Built Suffolk. Did They Write Our New Comp Plan as Well?

How do the competing visions of Agriculture & Tourism v. Warehouses
compare with Public Input? See for yourself in the charts below: