THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408050264
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Will ``progress'' transform Suffolk from a city of tree-lined rural roadways to the sister city of Hampton and Newport News, which share the clutter of Mercury Boulevard?
The prospect is about as appealing as a cold, stale biscuit from a fast-food restaurant. But for a glance at what not only can happen but is happening, just glance down Main Street from the lawn of the General District Court, or down Holland Road from where it is joined by the U.S. Route 58 bypass.
Main Street, from the intersection with Constance Road, is a screaming hodge-podge of signs, competing to lure us to everything from gas stations to shopping centers and fast-food outlets and a variety of other services. A blessedly short section of Holland Road shares the distinction.
Now think back to those sections of Main Street and Holland Road only a few years ago and compare then and now. It's startling.
Yet it's progress, at least in the sense of business growth. The question then becomes just how much such progress Suffolk wants and what limits should be imposed to hold it in check.
To succeed, the city must hold stronger to its master plan, protecting rural zones and being extremely stingy with zoning exemptions. We're not advocating denying people use of their land but imposing limits to keep Suffolk from becoming the peer of seemingly every other city in the nation: a sea of tall, competing signs that are the same in Raleigh as in Virginia Beach.
There's a tremendous lure to rurality, and we shouldn't yield that to developers who look at an appealing roadside site shaded by tall trees and visualize acres of asphalt for a zoom-through truck stop. If we must have the truck stops, the least we can do is assure that they're in appropriate areas and that they're not visual nightmares.
Now that the economy is loosening and Suffolk is beginning to experience the stirring of long-predicted development, the challenges to enhance Suffolk's quality of life - and protect the qualities its residents cherish - will be more intense than ever before. Suffolk must have the courage to say it simply doesn't want urban sprawl, one of the things that comes with progress.
The city planning department rightly wants the City Council to be involved in directing growth in ways to most benefit Suffolk. That ranges from everything to the larger matter of zoning to details such as signs, and there isn't time to waste.
Residents, too, must be alert. We'd be smart to keep up with proposals before the Planning Commission, which makes recommendations to the City Council. Citizens may voice opinions to the commission or council, and more of us should.
Without such vigilance, we just may wake up to find bulldozers pushing down trees for the next service station, with its megawatts of light and added traffic, for housing nowhere near the quality of nearby and established neighborhoods, or for the other familiar things that line highways across the nation.
Citizens do have a voice in the way Suffolk should look, say a decade from now, and more of us should determine to be heard. We must make sure that progress is indeed progress, not just something that transform Suffolk into a carbon copy of our neighbors. by CNB