Friday, March 18, 2011

Rosemont SGA, Second Meeting

How many housing units can you stuff into a SGA? Take a look at the draft plan for the Rosemont Strategic Growth Area (SGA) and you might get an idea.

On Thursday evening there was a meeting at Windsor Woods Elementary School on the draft plan for the Rosemont SGA. Attendance was very good, considering it was Saint Patrick's Day and opening day of the NCAA basketball tournament. The meeting began with brief remarks by Planning Director Jack Whitney and Councilman Glenn Davis. That was followed by a PowerPoint presentation on the Rosemont SGA and the team's draft plans.

RCLCO was asked to suggest for each SGA in Virginia Beach a potential identity that could color it's redevelopment. Rosemont is the Transit-Oriented Residential Village. Given such, the predominate feature is housing units. RCLCO saw a potential market for 1,750 townhouses, 800 condominiums, and 2,450 apartments across an area about 250 acres. The draft plan puts about half that many in 130.5 acres.

The draft has mostly multifamily housing, with some single family as buffers against healthy existing residential neighborhoods. There is some office and mixed use, with one planned new retail center. For the "They don't listen!" crowd: at the initial meeting we residents told the team that the Collins Square and Loehmann's Plaza Shopping Centers were strengths, and the team redacted them from the study area. (Initial Rosemont SGA Meeting, 2/11/11) They'll go untouched.

There were some road improvements suggested. First, a flyover west of Rosemont Road to Sentara Road, bypassing Rosemont's intersection with I-264. Second, the team is evaluating ramps off I-264 north at South Plaza Trail so Little Neck traffic doesn't have to shuffle to the I-264/Rosemont intersection. (There would be no ramps south on South Plaza Trail.) Third, swinging Bonney Road out to Virginia Beach Boulevard short of Rosemont Road.

After the presentation, the public broke out to tables with facilitators and team members to comment and make suggestions on the draft plan.

2 comments:

Wally Erb said...

Like I said, strategic growth is nothing but a framing term for urbanization.
Some American dream; shove and squeeze families along side, over, and under each other to squeeze as much revenue out of plot of land which will result in the ultimate demise of single family abodes. Move over South Bronx, Virginia Beach is on the way.

Avenging Archangel said...

Wally,

Our prior tussle was over use of the term "strategic planning", not "strategic growth".

To each his own. Personally, I'd love to have an apartment a short walk from a LRT station. If you don't, don't live in the TOD zone. No one will force you.

In doing TOD, densities only change within a half-mile radius of the station. The vast majority of Virginia Beach will look much the same 40 years from now.

If LRT opponents had any political savvy, they'd concede the Norfolk Southern ROW and position themselves as defenders of the suburbia beyond the TOD line. Alas, they seem intent on self-destruction.