THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060372
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE CHARLES LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
When people think of this town, which has done little but decay since the passenger rail and ferries died decades ago, the phrase ``cutting edge'' rarely comes to mind.
But that's about to change. The President's Council on Sustainable Development chose Cape Charles as a place to prove that industries can be ``environmentally intelligent.'' This week, that vision was transferred to the drawing board.
For three days, people crowded into the empty McCrory's building on Mason Avenue to design an ``eco-industrial park'' around the harbor in Cape Charles that could become a model for environmentally sensitive development.
As envisioned in plans presented to the community Wednesday night, the park would include five large industrial courtyards. In each, buildings would surround a central servicing center - a layout designed to shield noise and activity.
The design team focused on some key environmental goals, among them:
Improve water quality in the region by keeping paved areas to a minimum.
Whenever possible, use natural materials in developing the complex.
Create wetlands to improve wastewater systems.
According to the design team's estimates, the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park will create 395 direct jobs, including 175 in aquaculture and hydroponics, 100 at a wood mill and 75 in food processing.
Because construction will steer clear of wetlands and other environmental resources, no special permits will be needed for the first phase.
The next step is to seal agreements with the companies that will be tenants.
Participants at this week's design ``charette,'' as the architects call it, came from 35 federal, state and local agencies. There were architects, urban planners, environmental engineers, businessmen, politicians, water treatment experts, administrators, teachers and Coast Guard members.
Mixed with the experts - and on equal footing - were locals with no credentials other than a desire to shape their community's future.
It was a dynamic combination.
``The people with the resources to make this thing real are represented in this room,'' said Tim Hayes, Northampton County's director of sustainable development, a term for economic growth that does not harm the environment.
One key resource for the project is land.
Brown and Root Inc., a Texas company that owns 1,900 acres around Cape Charles, has offered to sell 400 acres for the industrial park.
Another key resource is money. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is footing 90 percent of the $65,000 cost of the design process, Hayes said. And 10 times that much money is being invested by state and federal agencies that sent experts to work on the industrial park design free of charge, he said.
At the session, representatives from the Farmers' Home Administration and the federal Economic Development Administration promised an additional $800,000 to pay for infrastructure in the park, if it is matched by $267,000 in local funds.
On Tuesday, the design session participants divided into 11 groups, each with a big map of Cape Charles. Armed with scraps of colored paper and glue sticks, they proceeded to redesign the town.
``What we're in now is a crisis of creativity,'' said design team leader Bill McDonough, dean of the University of Virginia's College of Architecture. ``We have no clue about what an eco-industrial park is. Nobody does. It's a brand-new day.''
Most of the 11 designs included bike paths, waterfront shops and webs of parks. They featured art centers, conference centers and huge tracts for light and heavy industry south of the harbor.
The preliminary designs were combined into one plan that was presented Wednesday night.
``I see this project as something we can all hang our hats on,'' Northampton County Administrator Tom Harris said. ``This is the future of the Eastern Shore.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Among the participants making plans for an "eco-industrial park" in
Cape Charles were, form left, Bill Sherman, Leo Weinberg, Bill
McDonough, Shawn Richenbacker and Maurice Cox.
by CNB