After nearly three years of work, Suffolk approved its hard-fought comprehensive plan update.
All localities in Virginia have comprehensive plans. They are long-term planning documents that inform future development and land use, setting a local government’s strategy for where to focus growth, what services or utilities need to be expanded to meet the city’s needs and what community assets need protection going forward.
Virginia requires cities and counties to review their plans at least every five years. The process in Suffolk began in early 2022 and drew “unprecedented” citizen engagement and opposition.
“It’s been one of the most extensive, time-consuming and costly endeavors I’ve witnessed in my 14 years serving on council,” said Mayor Mike Duman.
The plan has broad objectives that range from improving roadways in traffic-laden areas and developing a portfolio of sites suitable for large-scale development to creating an arts district downtown.
It also expands Suffolk’s growth areas by more than 12%. Those are places the city identifies as ideal for new development including large employment centers and new warehouses to support increased Port of Virginia activity.
The Suffolk 2045 Comprehensive Plan went before Suffolk City Council for consideration in two prior public hearings. Each time, council members pushed a decision to a later date and requested various changes to the draft.
The latest round of edits since November further increased the growth area along the U.S. Route 58 corridor, increased housing density maximums along the U.S. Route 460 corridor, updated older traffic data and removed the historic community of Hobson from the northern growth area.
Multiple council members emphasized that even though they do not believe the plan is perfect, they felt it was time to take action.
“I’ve criticized it, but I’ve changed my mind,” said Councilmember Tim Johnson, who abstained from the vote. “We need to pass a plan so that we have something to look at, to work from, and to show people where we want to go.”
Councilmember Shelley Butler Barlow voted in favor of the plan, though expressed disappointment that the increased size of the city’s growth areas wasn’t more reigned in.
“But I also realize that we have to move forward,” she said. “We have to have a way to figure out what we’re going to do, controlling the growth and managing the growth as best as we can.”
Growth was a core concern by residents opposed to the 2045 plan. Several civic leagues and other citizen organizations said it affords for more growth than Suffolk is prepared for, and that the city did not adequately assess the costs associated with its goals and objectives.
“This plan focuses on expanding the growth areas into the agricultural lands to allow for more warehouses and suburban sprawl to support the Port of Virginia,” said Michele Faulk, a member of a group called CARE4Suffolk, at the November meeting.
CARE4Suffolk is a grassroots community advocacy group that opposes the Suffolk 2045 plan.
Some residents and Councilmember Leroy Bennett were concerned the city didn't hold another public hearing on the plan after making so many changes to it. Virginia's public hearing laws don't require that, and the city's attorney told council they didn't have to.
Denise Murden, a board member for the advocacy group Citizens Voice, spoke as a non-agenda speaker after the plan was approved. She said Bennett pointed out “what is really bothering the citizens.”
“The fact that we did not have a public hearing for such substantial changes made to the comprehensive plan, after all of what we have already been through, seems disrespectful,” Murden said.
Kelly Hengler, executive president of the Crittenden, Eclipse & Hobson Heritage Civic League, pledged to file a complaint with the attorney general’s office.
