THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605030021
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
As elections approach, a big issue in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk is growth - or more accurately sprawl. Yet the only question generally asked during the campaigns has been how much is desirable and the standard answer is: More. The real issue is what alternative models for development are available and what their merits might be. That has gone undebated.
It ought to be on the agenda. The recent uptick in oil prices is a reminder that we've designed our world for 50 years on the assumption that everyone will have unlimited access to cheap energy forever. Yet the 21st century is likely to be quite different. As Hampton Roads cities consider designs for growth, they would be wise to assume costlier fuel and less of it.
In Virginia Beach, a debate on the shape of things to come is under way as 16 commnity meetings discuss the Comprehensive Plan for development (For information: call 427-4621). At stake is whether the future will be dominated by endless tract homes and strip malls up and down every clogged main road. Or can the idea of the suburb be rethought?
A realistic 21st-century plan would probably assume the need for a return to something more like the village of yesteryear. It is possible, after all, to design subdivisions to operate as self-contained units. Housing can be clustered around mini-downtowns that contain shopping and offices. Schools can be returned to neighborhoods and the whole complex can be designed to a scale that permits easy access by foot, bicycle or minibus while keeping cars behind the scenes. A series of central business districts and park-like light-manufacturing nodes can be linked by rail or bus routes to further minimize the need for cars.
Not only can such designs cut down on commuting and energy use, they can restore a sense of community that was lost when suburbs drained urban neighborhoods and divorced work from home. Cities can set policies that promote such design innovations or hinder them.
The open debate over a Comprehensive Plan in Virginia Beach is a chance for citizens to weigh in. Chesapeake and Suffolk need to have the same sort of debate. The problems facing the older, more-urban centers of Norfolk and Portsmouth are different but no less urgent and in need of consensus.
We live in a uniquely beautiful natural setting in Hampton Roads and to a large extent we've managed to ignore it, pave it and combat it rather than building in harmony with it.
From now on, there ought to be a premium on creating livable spaces for the pleasure and enrichment of all citizens by reclaiming the landscape and designing for the future. Part of the electoral debate should have been over such issues. It wasn't. Maybe the community discussions on the Virginia Beach Comprehensive Plan offer a second chance. by CNB