Interactive: Virginia Beach’s plan to transform the city

By Aaron Applegate
The Virginian-Pilot
© September 7, 2010

For years, Virginia Beach has been a textbook example of suburban sprawl. Housing booms in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s led to miles of strip malls, car dealerships and big-box stores with acres of parking lots. Now, the city is pretty much full.

The one exception is the agricultural area south of the growth restriction boundary known as the Green Line. But since there is no political will to open that area to development, the question becomes: How does Virginia Beach continue to grow in the mostly developed northern half?

City officials have an ambitious and somewhat radical answer to that question. They’ve identified eight parts of the city they want to remake, six of which lie along an old rail corridor proposed for a light-rail project. A new city office has been created for the effort. While the vision for each of these “Strategic Growth Areas” is different, they share common traits.

For example, they would have a compact form of development conducive to walking and mass transit. Vertical development, where permitted, would trump horizontal. Contrary to the goal of traditional suburban zoning that separated uses, the new approach would combine uses to create “mixed-use” developments, the dominant trend in urban planning. One example of this is Town Center, where hotels, restaurants, apartments, loft condos, retail shops, colleges and an arts center all share the same few blocks.

It’s no accident that six of the eight growth areas are near the proposed light-rail line. Officials want to use the mass transit system, if it’s approved by the City Council, to drive higher density urban-style development. They argue this form of redevelopment and light rail would attract big businesses and help tilt the tax burden, which today falls largely on homeowners, toward businesses.

Plans are completed for four of the eight areas. They outline the vision for political leaders and the public and serve as marketing tools that could help economic development officials lure businesses to Virginia Beach.

The projects face two main challenges. First, money. The city hopes private developers will build the projects, but the private sector will want public money to pay for infrastructure improvements. Second, land acquisition. The Beach does not have a redevelopment authority with condemnation power. Deals will have to be reached with private landowners.

This will all take time, many years, officials caution, but it could begin sooner than people think. For example, the Newtown area is seen as ripe for redevelopment with the coming of the Norfolk Tide light-rail station just across the city line.