THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509270186
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
The city of Suffolk is getting ready to ride a wave of development. And as it prepares to handle this new growth, Suffolk officials are being warned to remain conservative.
At a two-day retreat held last weekend at Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, the Suffolk City Council was briefed on its future - a future where the city's population is expected to soar from 51,000 to 95,700 residents by 2010.
That same year, the number of homes built in Suffolk since 1990 is expected to double.
This new growth can been seen through the number of building permits issued by the city. Suffolk set a record last year for issuing building permits. That record is expected to be broken again this year.
The city is projecting that 1,015 building permits will be issued this year after issuing 799 permits in 1994.
``We haven't see anything to indicate that these kinds of numbers are going to back off,'' said Robert Baldwin, the city's long-term planner.
The city's real limiting factor to development are utilities, said Baldwin.
Much of the city remains without city water and sewer service. But as the city begins pumping water from two newly approved wells in northeast Suffolk, there is talk of extending utilities.
The City Council, however, has yet to approve a policy that would dictate how the city would extend utilities, what it would cost to hook-up and where those utilities would go.
``Where you provide utilities is where you should expect development to happen,'' said Baldwin. ``And it will happen.''
The council was also told to be careful about rezoning land, a move that has a tendency to dictate where future development will take place.
The council was warned to be aware of where they approve new developments and to avoid ``leapfrog'' development that lacks planning.
At the same time, the council was warned not to look too far ahead. Development in Suffolk is driven by the market, said City Manager Myles E. Standish.
``You can never absolutely count on what's going to happen,'' he said. ``When we borrow money, we have to be very careful that we don't assume too much.''
The city was told to begin planning to get another source of city water and to create a detailed plan to extend city water and sewers.
It was good news to the council, which has been frustrated by the lack of a comprehensive policy to extend utilties.
``In all honesty,'' said Mayor S. Chris Jones, ``in the last 10 years all we've been doing is playing catch-up.''
David Rose, a financial analyst with Wheat First Securities in Richmond, ended Friday's session with a talk on how the city should fiscally face the future.
He listed four key financial objectives for the city:
The city must identify existing and new revenue sources.
There are several which the city has yet to take advantage of, including asking developers to pay cash proffers to the city to help pay for city services required by new communities.
The city must minimize any debt borrowing and find other sources of money before leveraging for money.
The city must borrow money on the most cost-effective basis.
The city should take advantage of its strong property-tax base to do this.
The city should take advantage of its existing decline in debt service payments.
The council was also advised to raise the amount of money in its undesignated fund balance, which is more or less the city's savings account.
The fund is viewed by the major bond-rating houses as an indicator of a city's solvency and careful planning. The more money in the fund, the easier it will be for the city to borrow money and pay for future projects.
The fund has grown from $600,000 in 1992 to about $8 million.
There was some talk during the retreat that the council should consider a policy that would raise the amount of the fund to help the city achieve a higher bond rating and thus lower interest rates on any future bond issues. Only Portsmouth's bond rating ranks lower than Suffolk's in the region. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
``In all honesty, in the last 10 years all we've been doing is
playing catch-up,'' said Mayor S. Chris Jones about the need to
extend city water and sewer services.
by CNB