THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603160104
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
MARY FELTON has dug ditches to handle overflow in her yard from her septic tank, pumped water out of the tank and had to deal with its foul odor during dry spells.
Over the years, she has signed her name to a number of petitions asking the city to bring her Holland community sewer and water services.
Now the City Council is considering new utility policies that could help Felton and others seeking water and sewer services in this sprawling city.
Twenty-nine neighborhoods are still without connections to the city's water system, and 59 don't have sewer hook-up, according to a list by the Department of Health. Many residents still must pump water from private wells. Others still rely on privies.
Many residents have waited years for the city to bring them relief. City officials have been frustrated as well. They know the health hazards yet say they can't afford to stretch pipelines to places where only a few residents will be helped.
At the same time, developers are pressuring the city to install water and sewer lines to areas primed for residential growth.
The decisions made in formulating the new policies will go a long way toward determining how this city will develop and when its current residents will get basic services.
The city - at 432 square miles the size of Rhode Island - is struggling to find a solution. City officials say it's just not economically feasible to extend services to neighborhoods where only a few residents would benefit.
One of the ways contemplated under the new policies would be to encourage more industrial growth. The large users would then help cover the costs of laying the water and sewer mains that might be extended to existing residents.
But attracting industry comes with a price. Jobs and utilities will certainly spur more residential growth, and with it even higher demands on the city's water and sewer system, city officials know.
And widespread development could rob Suffolk of the rural charm that has drawn so many newcomers in the first place.
``The extremes of unbridled growth and no growth are not acceptable,'' City Manager Myles E. Standish said. ``The appropriate alternative is managed growth.
``A lot goes into solid consideration of managed growth. The city needs to consider a good comprehensive land plan, transportation networks and the utility infrastructure. They are all the building blocks of growth.''
Under the city's current utility policies, politics and petitions have always played a heavy role in deciding the order in which neighborhoods receive water and sewer hookups.
But now the City Council is stepping back and taking a look at how it has handled the process. The new policies address everything from who gets utilities to how much the city should charge neighborhoods to install them.
The new policies, city officials say, should result not only in better services to residents, but will lay the groundwork for how the city deals with relentless residential growth.
In the last two years, the city has experienced a steady climb in development. In 1995, the Bureau of Inspections issued 883 residential building permits, up 78 percent from 1993, when 500 were granted.
Since utilities were extended into the northern end of Suffolk, subdivisions like Harbourview have popped up. The city is building a new school there. Old Dominion University is trying to open a technology hub that would work closely with the military's Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center near I-664 south of the Monitor Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel.
The center could attract hundreds of companies and millions of dollars in economic development. A similar center in Orlando helped the area attract 140 companies and more than $180 million in economic development in eight years.
Residents in Pughsville have seen firsthand what utility lines mean. New houses have been sprouting up in the subdivision that was once dying. Newcomers have received utilities, while some residents like 73-year-old Dorothy Mae Deans are still waiting.
``I've lived here all my life,'' Deans said. ``I've been hoping and praying for the city sewer system. They say I might get it since all these new people are moving in. But I don't think I'll see it my lifetime.''
Other Pughsville homeowners who are now connected to the city's water and sewer systems complain that the city isn't prepared for so much development. They say the city isn't building the recreational facilities needed to handle the influx of newcomers.
``The development is not planned,'' said Mary Richardson, president of the Pughsville Civic League. ``We had a community that was once dying. Now we have utilities and we're happy. But we have no say so over what goes up in our community. Everywhere they can stick a house, they stick it. Some of them don't even have driveways to park their cars.
``I don't want them to stop building, but we want something to offer them, she continued. ``The city and the developers are getting rich and now we have a whole lot of people and children with no playgrounds, no parks, no kind of recreation for them. And what are we getting? We're getting a community that's not planned for and people who haven't fought the battle for us to get this sewer and water but are benefiting.''
Felton, who has lived in Holland for 12 years, said the city is extending utilities to newcomers and is ignoring the rest of Suffolk.
``If I got the chance to get city sewer and water I'd jump at it,'' Felton said. ``But in my lifetime I'll never see it. It'll be nice, but I'm not going to hold my breath. All the actual growth in is the northern part of Suffolk. That's where it's (utilities) going.''
But city officials disagree. They say they are aware that new houses cost the city almost as much as the taxes they bring in.
``When a new house is built, you need new schools,'' Standish said. ``We're aware of that. A house averages two to three students, most school-age at one point. But we want a good balance between industrial and residential development. And we're preparing now for what is set to happen in 10 years.'' MEMO: OPTIONS
City Manager Myles E. Standish said the city is working on several
new plans and policies to control growth.
Among them:
A Comprehensive Land Use Plan, a blueprint for future development.
The city is in the process of hiring a consultant. A series of
public meetings will be held to get community input about Suffolk in the
next 10 to 20 years.
Looking at cash proffers, donations that developers would be asked to
make to the city to offset the impact of their projects on nearby
services.
One of the utility policies could force developers to install larger
water and sewer mains, which would provide utilities to existing
residents or future development.
The city, in return, would agree to reimburse the developer each time
the city gained a new utility customer benefitting from the main.
Related story on page 14.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by John H. Sheally II.
Mary Felton has a ditch in her back yard to take care of septic tank
problems.
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Pughsville resident Dorothy Mae Deans, 73, hopes to have an indoor
bathroom in her lifetime.
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Antonio Taylor's home in Pughsville has water and sewer hookups, but
there is no playground nearby.
by CNB