DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997               TAG: 9703060324

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   68 lines

SUFFOLK WILL BUY NORTHGATE LAND CITY IS LOOKING TO FUTURE WITH 460 ACRE DEAL

The City Council dropped an economic bombshell Wednesday night, announcing that Suffolk would buy 460 acres of the long-fallow Northgate Industrial Park.

The purchase announcement was made without explanation and as part of an added resolution at the end of the meeting. There was no discussion.

The land, on Nansemond Parkway near Shoulders Hill Road, has long been touted as a key site for economic development in northern Suffolk, with Interstates 664 and 64, as well as direct rail access, nearby.

But ever since the original 685-acre tract was approved for industrial use in 1995, the land has remained untouched. A planned racetrack, to be called the Suffolk International Speedway, has never been built.

City officials said Wednesday they had been negotiating with the tract's owner, Buzz Upton, for about a year. City Manager Myles E. Standish said the land was too centrally located and too promising for the city to pass up.

``It's very important to have a variety of properties that are zoned industrial so that we can be ready for future prospects,'' Standish said.

When asked why the city would purchase land that hasn't drawn any businesses since it was approved two years ago, Standish said: ``I would imagine they said the same thing once about Chesapeake Square Mall.''

Suffolk has yet to sign the deal. For the next 90 days, city officials will examine the property to make sure it meets all of their needs. After that, the city will sign an agreement that likely will call for the city to buy increasingly larger pieces of the property over a period of 15 years.

However, in a separate matter, the city allocated $126,000 to buy the first 7 acres at Wednesday's meeting.

If the city buys all the property over the full 15 years, it will pay about $18,000 per acre, for a total of about $8.3 million.

The land for the racetrack is included in the deal between Upton and the city, however the future of the racetrack has not been discussed, Standish said.

THE LAND IS NO STRANGER to citizens in northern Suffolk and adjacent Chesapeake. The Suffolk City Council first approved the land as an industrial park in January 1995 under heavy protest. Nearby residents said the racetrack and industrial businesses would clog roads and make life generally unliveable.

The rezoning of the original 685 acres had to be approved a second time in March 1995 after Chesapeake residents and city officials said they were not properly notified about a public hearing on the rezoning. Nearby residents then formed CAR - Citizens Against the Racetrack in Our Backyard - and hired an attorney.

The group filed a lawsuit against the city. The suit was eventually appealed to the state Supreme Court, which ruled that the rezoning was properly approved.

All this time, the land has remained untouched. The city had planned to spend $2.1 million to build a road to the racetrack as well as lay water and sewer piping. That never took place.

Suffolk economic development director Thomas A. O'Grady said that money was never allocated to the project, so the city will have to come up with the funds to pay for infrastructure at the site.

Northgate will be Suffolk's third city-owned industrial park. Wilroy Industrial Park has long been filled and only has about a one-acre plot left.

The city is about to open the Suffolk Industrial Park north of the airport in southern Suffolk.

Northgate is viewed as a cornerstone for economic development in northern Suffolk, Standish said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color map]

460 acres proposed for purchase by the city

[For copy of map, see microfilm]

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