
DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709250614

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   93 lines

SUPPORTERS PROMISE, THIS PLAN WILL DEVELOP FOR CITY OF SUFFOLK

``Shelf-sitters.'' ``Money-wasters.'' ``Useless.'' That's how some describe past efforts.

The city has completed at least two studies on redeveloping downtown. Today, it will start work on a third.

The rows of retail stores, barber shops and five-and-dime centers that once made downtown Suffolk a shopping destination have vanished. What are left are dozens of abandoned buildings, a few struggling stores and only one downtown eatery.

No one questions the need to redevelop the area.

Still, some residents and business owners have expressed concerns about funding another study on downtown.

A redevelopment plan was created in the early 70s, and another as recently as 1993. The city has set aside $40,000 for the latest study, which will also look at expanding downtown's boundaries.

``I've been around for the studies,'' Brenda Wright, who has co-owned a dental lab for 14 years and an art gallery for more than a year in the same building on Main Street, said. ``Plans have been going on for years. None of them are coagulating. It's money wasted.''

This study will be different, Steve Herbert, the city's assistant manager for development, said. It won't just collect dust on a shelf. It will be implemented.

``It's time to get on with the revival of the greater downtown area,'' Herbert said. ``This has to happen. The mayor and vice-mayor are chairing this committee. The City Council is locked into this process.''

One of the major differences between this plan and others, city officials say, is that it will be the community's plan.

Suffolk has invited urban visionary Ray Gindroz to attend the first meeting on the downtown study. But the idea, should he eventually be hired, is to have him work with a group of 30 residents to plan downtown's future.

Things already are happening downtown.

The city recently spent $14 million to build a new courthouse on Main Street, hoping it will spur interest in downtown. Some say the new facility, which should open next March, won't generate offshoot businesses; others view it as the saving grace the area needs.

``The courts building is bound to help by drawing people,'' said Samuel Glasscock, a downtown attorney, former legislator and member of the new committee. ``All of that helps a great deal.

``Some people have the idea that just because you have a committee and a plan, lo and behold, magic occurs,'' he continued. ``We may find that there's no magic . . . Nothing can happen overnight.''

Herbert said the city has not discarded the plans of the past. He pointed to a 1993 study that recommended adding trees and street lights to downtown.

Last week, he suggested to the council that if the new downtown committee agrees, 20 new Darlington Oaks and 80 lights should be placed on Main Street, at a cost of about $170,000.

The new plan also will look beyond the couple of blocks that have traditionally been called downtown and will examine enlarging downtown if residents and owners buy into the idea.

Recently several downtown businesses, including Denison's - a women's clothing store - and The Dollar General store, have announced plans to relocate or shut their doors, saying they can't survive until redevelopment comes.

``I've located my businesses here because I owned the building,'' Wright said. ``They say the most important thing about business is location. I don't have that, and I don't know if I ever will.

``Whether I do is up to the powers that be.''

Downtown attorney Whitney Saunders, another member of the group, said he doesn't think Suffolk will ever be the retail hub it once was.

But it can be a service-oriented center with related retail and mixed housing.

``My goal for this document is to get the City Council to commit, in its capital improvements budget, money for reviving downtown over a long period of time,'' Saunders said. ``It will take more than one building and more than just a few years.

``I'd like my business here when it occurs.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Brenda Wright, co-owner of the Shooting Star Gallery on Main Street,

wants results, not more studies that are a waste of tax dollars.

With the mayor and vice-mayor on the committee, though, advocates

say this plan to revitalize downtown will come to fruition.

Graphic

DETAILS

The first meeting, for city staff and downtown committee members

only, will be held today. The group will set guidelines, look at

downtown's assets and liabilities and set a schedule for what's to

come.