THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412200289
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: OUTDOORS PLAN
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 153 lines
To Patricia Ann Ingmire, the Virginia Beach Outdoors Plan is a chance to improve the city's bike trails and encourage residents' fitness.
To Robert G. Hicks, the recreation scheme provides a chance to boost the city's economic development potential.
To H. Clayton Bernick III, it's a chance to make a lasting difference in the city in which he lives and works.
The 86-page plan, approved by the City Council this fall, means something different to almost everyone who helped craft it over the past eight years.
Some say that complexity is its strength:
``That's the beauty of it,'' said Susan D. Walston, director of the parks and recreation department, which helped develop the plan. ``The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.''
``The healthiest natural ecosystems are the ones which are the most diverse,'' added Bernick, a city environmental planner. ``We ought to be learning from nature, not only to protect it, but about the process of how we can plan.''
The recreation plan, which will receive about $1.3 million a year in taxpayer funds, comprises a list of short-term projects and long-term goals that balance the interests of nature-lovers, history buffs, equestrians, golfers, paddlers, boaters, bikers, runners and hikers.
It is revolutionary in promoting a comprehensive approach to recreation, and familiar in encouraging good health and an improved quality of life.
Ingmire, 44, said she's been able to maintain her 118-pound figure despite ``eating everything that's not nailed down,'' because of the long-distance bike rides she takes several times a week. Her hope for the Outdoors Plan is that it will create a network of bike paths that will allow people to take pleasure rides and occasionally leave their cars at home.
``I think recreation is what keeps people from going crazy,'' said Ingmire, a hair stylist and member of the city's Greenways, Trails and Bikeways Committee, which helped draft the plan.
As bikeways are developed, she said, kids might be able to get to school and visit nearby friends without having to get a ride; parents might be able to get to work on a Schwinn instead of in a Chevrolet.
But the plan is more than just new canoe put-ins along the Elizabeth River and a new connector trail to Pungo, supporters say. It is a new way of looking at recreation in Virginia Beach that will someday help create a new Virginia Beach.
``It's not going to happen overnight,'' said Robert G. Hicks, chairman of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission, ``but when it's completed it will probably be one of the greatest (recreation) plans in the South.''
In the past, the city has built gyms and playgrounds and fields, but there is a growing demand for different types of recreation. If the system becomes a real asset to Virginia Beach, it will be one more reason for businesses to locate here, said Hicks, coordinator of student services for city schools.
``Everything in recreation so far has been geared basically to youth,'' said Hicks, an avid golfer and pleasure-walker. ``This plan makes it for everyone: people who ride horseback, walk, ride bicycles.''
According to the 1992 Virginia Outdoors Survey, members of 65 percent of Virginia households walk for pleasure, 35 percent visit historical sites, 31 percent ride bikes, 26 percent go camping and 24 percent report visiting natural areas.
Nationally, the popularity of hiking, biking and outdoor photography are predicted to increase more than 100 percent over the next 45 years, according to the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America.
That's not to say that the city will never build another playground or soccer field, said J. Barry Frankenfield, a city parks planner. But in the past, playgrounds were sometimes built for their own sake, not to fill a pressing need, he said.
Developers were usually required to set aside a certain number of acres in the middle of their subdivisions for a neighborhood park. Now, they might be encouraged to provide land along the edges for a bike trail, he said.
The efforts of different city departments also will be better coordinated to make sure the developer's money is not wasted and the residents get the facility they need. Reviews will be made by a steering committee made up of staff members from the planning, parks and recreation, and management and budget departments.
``If we accomplished anything at all it was getting various government entities to work together and stop thinking of their little piece of the puzzle as the whole world,'' said Dan H. Brockwell, an architect who helped develop the plan as a member of the parks and recreation commission. ``All of us ride down the street and see projects that are built and three months later someone's tearing them up and trying to put some oh-by-the-ways in.''
Getting the right trail or park in the right place will involve greater public participation than in the past, said Bernick, of the planning department.
The Outdoors Plan is more of a conceptual sketch than a step-by-step instruction booklet for recreational development. If a neighborhood wants a bike trail or to preserve a favorite tree, its leaders should come to city hall and ask for help, he said.
In return, residents may be asked to take some responsibility for keeping the plan alive.
Bernick, who says working on the plan is the most satisfying thing he's done in his eight years with the city, said his only caution is the need to keep the momentum going. Because the process will work so slowly, he said, there is a danger that people will forget to use it.
But if it works - and Bernick believes it will - Virginia Beach will someday have a recreation network that will ``just knock the socks off'' everyone who comes here. MEMO: [ALSO SEE: Related stories ran in The Beacon on pages 12, 13, 14, 15,
and 16 for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
Color Photo
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
How the city plans to preserve it so residnets like you can enjoy
it
THE VIRGINIA BEACH OUTDOORS PLAN
STAFF Map
The outdoors plane covers five specific areas. More information
about these areas is found on the five succeeding pages:
HERITAGE RESOURCES PAGE 12
PUBLIC RESOURCES PAGE 13
GREENWAYS & SCENIC WATERWAYS PAGE 14
TRAILS PAGE 15
PARKS & GOLF COURSES PAGE 16
AT A GLANCE
The back of the Virginia Beach Outdoors Plan includes a list of
89 people who helped in some way to draft the ordinance. That
diversity is reflected in the reasons those participants give for
liking the plan.
To some it will help improve the city's network of hike, bike,
horse back riding and canoe trails, golf courses and city parks. To
others it is a new way for the city to do business, by coordinating
efforts of various departments. To still more, it's a plan that will
make the city one of the most attractive on the East Coast to
residents, tourists and businesses.
Other benefits they cited:
It will give city residents a chance to help determine what
recreational facilities are needed in their neighborhoods.
It will take pressure off more conventional resources, like
Seashore State Park, by giving people other places to enjoy the
outdoors.
It will promote ``well-ness'' by providing more places for
residents to stroll, pedal and paddle.
It will increase public safety by giving young people more
constructive ways to release energy.
It will provide more opportunities to escape urban life.
It will encourage environmental stewardship by giving people
greater access to natural areas and therefore a greater appreciation
for nature.
KEYWORDS: OUTDOORS PLAN by CNB