THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060361
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, TONY WHARTON AND KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
The growth of bright, new neighborhoods is turning some older Virginia suburbs into the equivalent of crumbling parts of inner cities, warns a study from the University of Virginia released Monday.
And unless the state sets a new direction for development, the study said, unchecked suburban sprawl will make Virginia's cities poorer and more violent, suburbs will decline, and valuable farmland could all but disappear.
These findings, delivered to a state commission on population growth and development, paint a dark statistical picture of the state's three largest metropolitan areas - Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads.
The premise is this: Older suburbs are suffering from many of the same problems usually associated with inner cities. The reason, researchers say, is a suburban sprawl that is sapping the life out of cities and older suburbs while eating up huge tracts of farmland for development.
While the report did not go beyond the statistical makeup of the region, it reflected several problems Hampton Roads is facing, some better-known than others:
The region's cities have tended to work against one another, rather than cooperating to encourage economic development and regional growth.
Older neighborhoods in the suburbs, sometimes built hastily in the growth booms of the 1970s and '80s, are deteriorating as fast as the inner cities - or faster.
Existing programs to preserve farmland either are not working or are meeting resistance. For instance, the Virginia Beach City Council plans to discuss a proposal next month to preserve local agriculture. It is the city's third attempt at maintaining farmland and putting a limit on suburban sprawl.
The report was compiled by William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips, two urban and environmental planning professors at the University of Virginia. The report was prepared for the Virginia Commission on Population Growth and Development.
Kat Imhoff, director of the commission, said she thinks the study's findings will feed some simultaneous movements toward regional cooperation. Several state delegates, as well as the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, are studying the issue.
``It's interesting how with some ideas it seems like the time has come,'' she said. ``There are a lot of different people we're hoping will read this. Regions stand and fall together, and you can't talk about one locality without talking about the other.''
It is the same argument voiced by author and urban expert David Rusk, who spoke to Hampton Roads city officials in October 1993. Hampton Roads, he said, is too splintered.
Rusk's book, ``Cities Without Suburbs,'' argues that suburbs can never be as successful and powerful on their own as they can be working together with center cities.
He points to cities like Charlotte and Jacksonville, Fla., where such regional efforts have helped land professional sports franchises.
Imhoff said the study will be folded into a report by the commission to the General Assembly in March.
It will not be delivered in time for the next session of the legislature.
Asked whether the study really tells people anything new, Imhoff said, ``Intuitively people have known this, but this is the first time someone sat down and took the time to make sure we're talking about apples and apples.''
Some local statistics back up the report's claim. For example, crime, delinquency and other social problems grew more in suburban Virginia Beach and Chesapeake than in urban Norfolk and Portsmouth over the past several years, said Claudia Gooch. Gooch is director of community planning and development for the Planning Council, a nonprofit regional organization that researches social issues.
The distribution of food stamps in Virginia Beach increased 118 percent between January 1990 and January 1994, while in Norfolk the percentage increase was 72 percent, Gooch said.
But Gooch cautioned that these increases must be measured against changes in the population of each city. Norfolk's population, for example, dropped 6 percent between 1990 and 1993 while Virginia Beach's grew by 6 percent.
Daniel M. Stone, director of social services for Virginia Beach, said the demand for public assistance has increased dramatically over the past five years as suburban growth has slowed.
``We're not suggesting that it's worse (here) than in any other city,'' Stone said, ``but we've become more normal.''
While the report recommended state policies to retain and attract residents in developed areas, Norfolk has begun such an effort on its own.
For example, it has redeveloped East Ghent for upscale families. It also is trying to lure more people to downtown with multimillion-dollar investments along the waterfront and with the proposed MacArthur Center regional shopping mall.
Norfolk also is razing a 90-acre section of East Ocean View in hopes of rebuilding the neighborhood with middle- and upper-income homes.
In addition, the city is working on a marketing program to lure more middle-class families back from the suburbs.
Lucy and Phillips conclude that cities must begin to encourage residents to remain in the core cities and inner suburbs, limit where people can live on the outskirts of settled areas and encourage development outside cities to be compact and representative of the region's population.
``Many obstacles lie in the path of successfully designing, adopting and implementing these policy goals,'' says the report, which predicts that the cities will likely allow this suburban decline to proceed.
``If central cities continue their downward spiral,'' the report concludes, ``outward movement will accelerate.''
Sen. Mark L. Earley, who has worked extensively on growth issues, warned that the report's recommendations clash with fundamental American values.
Earley, who had not read the study, said, ``I'm getting the impression that it's saying the way to solve the problem is some sort of central government planning.
``One of the most cherished freedoms in America is the freedom of movement, going where you want to go and locating where you want to locate. It's difficult, and not very desirable, to implement some policy that restricts the location of people.'' MEMO: Staff writer Mike Knepler contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff file
DETAILS
Chesapeake grew by one-third between 1980 and 1990, but 30
percent of its census tracts declined in population during the
period. That means that Chesapeake's growth was felt only in 70
percent of its census tracts.
Norfolk lost 2 percent of its overall population between 1980 and
1990, but nearly 60 percent of its census tracts actually gained
population during that period. So the city's decline was not felt in
more than half its neighborhoods.
Nearly 60 percent of Hamptons Roads residents moved between 1985
and 1990. Those numbers are most extreme in Virginia Beach, where 91
percent of renters and 52 percent of owners moved. The lack of
attachment by most residents to their neighborhoods helps encourage
decline, the study's authors suggest.
Source: William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips, University of
Virginia, Department of Urban and Environmental Planning.
by CNB