Wednesday, January 14, 2009

City Council Approves Town Center Phase IV

Last night the Virginia Beach City Council approved proceeding with Town Center Phase IV on an 8-3 vote. Councilmen DeSteph, Diezel, and Dyer voted "No". http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/virginia-beach-votes-spend-60m-town-center

I wasn't committed to commenting on this, but the number of negative comments online this morning got me off the fence. Two important things to remember here. First, Armada-Hoffler will build Phase IV in it's entirety at their own expense, then the City will buy the public portions with bond debt. Therefore, the City's capital expenses don't kick in until Phase IV is completed. Second, that will be 2-3 years from now. Given that, the economy should be better then and this project coming online will help.

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out how this helps the case for light rail in Virginia Beach. Those additional people at Town Center will now have to be counted in the updated Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS), boosting the ridership figures.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Light rail is not the answer. It is not fast enought to be extented throughout Hampton Roads. At about 40 mph or less average speed, a car will still get pretty much anywhere faster than light rail. I've been places where they had light rail, and they have to contend with cars at intersections and get into accidents with cars fairly easily. High speed rail is the best choice. Light rail will ultimately be a waste of money that could have been spent for high speed elevated rail.

Avenging Archangel said...

High speed rail is good for service between metro areas, but not within Hampton Roads. A light rail train can do 50-60 mph.

Anonymous said...

Henry, as I recall (it has been a while) isn't the average speed of the proposed light rail line from downtown Norfolk to the Beach oceanfront only 14 MPH?

I don't have the numbers handy. Do you happen to know what the average speed per mile is expected to be for the Tide transiting from one end of the 7 miles to the other??

Avenging Archangel said...

Reid,

For average speed we'd need the new DEIS...the DEIS you oppose doing.

Michael Ragsdale said...

I think Reid's asking about the Norfolk part not the Beach part

Avenging Archangel said...

The Norfolk FEIS is on the Ride The Tide website.

That said, Virginia Beach's speed would be faster in that the stations would be further spaced out.

Anonymous said...

So .. okay ... does anyone know what the speed (ave. per mile) is for The Tide?

Star Womanspirit said...

I believe that light rail is great BUT NOT WITH A PRIVATE CORPORATION OWNING ANY OF IT....and I bet that portion is not the last miloe that is at the oceanfront.....

If a private corporation "Owns" any of the light rail it is literally high way robbery of the local tax paying citizens.

This would be Virginia's "version of a Wall Street Bail Out" We'd be bailing out the Bank's partner in crime....the wealthy private developer.

Are the citizens of Virginia Beach apethetic enough to allow these kinds of shennanigans?