THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411180165
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: The Grand Plan
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
On a map Portsmouth ``looks like it's a crossroads of the earth,'' Ray Gindroz said at a recent meeting.
``But the big problem is getting from the system into the city,'' he said. ``That must be fixed.''
The city, he said, has potentially the best access in the region to all of Hampton Roads. But the system must be altered to benefit the city, not bypass it.
``Now the road system is a mess,'' he said.
Clearly the most needed additions to the system, he said, are the Pinners Point connector and the Martin Luther King Freeway connector to Interstate 264.
However, he has suggested that instead of an interstate-type structure, the Martin Luther King connector should be a boulevard, which would give business and industry more access to the road system from underdeveloped areas south of High Street in the middle of the city.
Gindroz also believes that Frederick Boulevard should be straightened.
``Strangers get lost in that area,'' he said. ``The angles fragment the real estate and that produces fragmented development.''
The property configuration is, he said, ``the equivalent of shattered glass.'' REGIONAL EXPRESSWAY
ASSETS: The regional expressway system creates extraordinary access for most parts of Portsmouth. When the last two parts - the Pinners Point and the Martin Luther King connectors - are completed, Portsmouth will be connected to the rest of the region through both an inner and an outer ring expressway system.
This improved expressway system would provide better access for tourists unfamiliar with the area; truckers who will be able to ship goods and materials in and out of the city more efficiently than from other parts of the region; and commuters who should be able to work anywhere in the Hampton Roads region.
LIABILITIES: There are two missing links in the regional expressway system and they must be completed in order to improve Portsmouth's accessibility.
As well, the connections between many of the expressway interchanges and city destinations are confusing.
There virtually is no sense of arrival Downtown or at Effingham Street. The convoluted paths that vehicles are forced to take discourages use, particularly when compared to the straight forward layout of suburban interchanges connecting to suburban malls.
Land-use patterns along the expressways, particularly in the off-ramp areas, create a negative image for the city. Instead of revealing the city's best qualities for those on the way to regional destinations, the view from the road highlights the worst problems. CITY STREET NETWORK
ASSETS: The city street network, laid out in a grid pattern when the city was first designed, continues in many areas to serve local traffic effectively.
London Boulevard has taken over the role of High Street as the major connector for east-west traffic. High Street below Chestnut recently has been upgraded and is on its way to resuming its role as a retail center.
Effingham Street serves as a major north-south connector between the naval shipyard and the naval hospital.
The regular grid of streets in historic Downtown and in many neighborhoods provides both human scale and flexibility of use.
The historic relationship of these grids to the water provides the opportunity for linking whole districts to the waterfront. In some neighborhoods, frontage roads provide continuous public access for the whole neighborhood to the waterfront.
LIABILITIES: The configuration of waterways and wetlands resulted in interesting land-use and traffic patterns in which the districts of the city are connected along one narrow, east-west corridor between London Boulevard and the Expressway. Traffic therefore is concentrated in this area.
The tradition of extending the grid of streets to the river has been broken by more recent configuration of properties along the waterfront. In many neighborhoods, private properties occupy the waterfront and the streets have little or no access to it.
The result is that Portsmouth's wonderful waterfront image is practically invisible for most users of the city and not at all part of the visitor's experience of driving into the city.
RECOMMENDATIONS: All of the entrances into the city should be evaluated from the image they convey. This program should deal with the designs of the roads, their landscaping and character and the uses that can be seen from them.
It is important to identify the gateways as independent initiatives. The planners listed the key gateways as follows:
I-264 interchange between Crawford and Effingham
I-264 interchange at the future Martin Luther King Boulevard connection and Frederick Boulevard
The linkage from I-664 to Martin Luther King Boulevard
London/High Corridor
Water approaches and the connection to landside uses. DISTRICTS/AREAS
Cities consist of districts, transportation networks, public monuments and landmarks and systems of public open space. The districts of a city usually are defined by a combination of natural features, changes of land use and transportation routes.
THE PAST: Portsmouth's historic structure can be seen in a combination of the patterns of streets and buildings.
The historic Downtown is at the eastern edge of the city, not in the center of the city. It was related to the port and harbor. High Street and Court Street were two main corridors connecting all part of the city to it. They became, therefore, the corridors for industrial, commercial and some institutional uses. Surrounding the two main corridors were residential neighborhoods with a dense pattern of individual structures.
THE PRESENT: The expressway is now the principal means of access from the region into various areas of the city. Development has failed to respond to this change in regional access.
Concentration of commercial and industrial uses along the traditional corridors are, for the most part, under used, decayed and derelict. Most of the healthy retail and industrial activity moved to suburban locations with expressway access. But the areas along the expressway in the city are mostly empty, undeveloped or developed with residential or other uses.
Whereas in the past, the predominant access routes into the city were the east-west corridors, the construction of the expressway has caused a major transformation so that today the dominant access is between the expressway and the various parts of the city along north-south corridors such as Effingham Street.
THE FUTURE: The major access corridors are north-south from the expressway interchanges. At present there are Crawford and Court streets (minor) and Effingham Street and Frederick Boulevard (major). The future extension of Martin Luther King Boulevard will be a new major corridor when it is built.
The double east-west corridors of London Boulevard and High Street will no longer be as critical, but London is designed to carry major volumes of east-west traffic. THE FUTURE
The new road and traffic patterns create a framework for a revised arrangement of use-districts or target areas as follows:
1. DOWNTOWN: Downtown now should be seen as one unique center in a regional network of centers. Its potential as a living history environment suggests that it be called Olde Towne.
2. PORTCENTRE: Because of its convenient access to the expressway and to downtown, this area is a tremendous development opportunity.
3. NORTH COAST: These neighborhoods still maintain much of their historic charm and with the dredging of Scotts Creek there is a very good chance of revitalizing the whole area.
4. EFFINGHAM/MIDTOWN CORRIDOR: This area is the key to turning around the city's negative image, It has potential as a mixed use retail/health/residential area.
5. MIDCITY: Represents a good opportunity to reweave urban fabric torn apart when the mall was constructed.
6. LOWER MIDTOWN: Unused land along railway tracks has excellent expressway access and therefore the potential to develop into a major commercial and light industrial area. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Dredging of Scotts Creek would provide a good chance of revitalizing
the area.
by CNB