THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170153
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Behind all the arguments about the proposed racetrack on the Portsmouth/ Chesapeake border remains a fundamental question: Should residents have a stronger voice than government when it comes to determining what comes into their neighborhoods?
A resounding yes!
It doesn't matter if the issue is a noisy, noxious racetrack or a church. The people who have committed their resources to building/buying homes and bonding with their communities are much more the owners of their futures than government - on any level - ever should be.
That's why, when the Suffolk City Council meets March 29, it should not simply uphold its previous votes on the racetrack and surrounding industrial park. The council should listen - really listen - and determine just whose interest they have at heart.
Someone among them should have the guts to move for reconsideration, and the council members should release the heels they've dug in and say ``no, thanks'' to the track's sponsors.
Does that pose legal questions? Possibly, since they've already voted for rezoning, but the whole matter of this rezoning already is entwined in a legal challenge.
The city flubbed it from the onset, failing to give proper notice to adjoining Chesapeake, parts of which would be as immediately affected as parts of Suffolk. Then what once was one rezoning applications became two.
And, when the Chesapeake neighbors finally got wide enough awake to realize what was happening to them, they filed a lawsuit and asked enough good questions to force the Suffolk City Council into a special session to reaffirm its votes on the track and industrial park and to schedule the upcoming hearing.
The opponents will be out in force March 29, and well they should be. Beginning with Suffolk neighbors who rejected the prospect of a racetrack in their backyards, and now expanded to include citizens from Chesapeake and other cities as well, they've made a good case.
The unfortunate thing is that, in some people's minds, it's become a Suffolk vs. Chesapeake issue. It isn't.
It doesn't have to fall to that. There are too many legitimate questions, including:
How will the rural roads of the area handle the traffic? They can't, says the police department. There are no immediate plans to widen them, so already overburdened Nansemond Parkway and other area routes would just get more clogged.
A lot of the traffic likely would come from our eastern Hampton Roads neighbors, but interstate routes don't extend to the track site. It's difficult to envision how to avoid bottlenecks when, for instance, traffic flowed from the wide thoroughfares at Chesapeake Square onto winding, two-lane roads.
Isn't there a better site?
Suffolk's 430 or so square miles surely offers a site that isn't so close to residential areas and is more easily accessible. Has the city identified other possibilities and discussed them with the developers?
A racetrack isn't necessarily a bad business; it's more a matter of compatibility.
What of emergencies?
That is an excellent, and troubling, question. If, as some opponents say, rescue vehicles would simply get caught in traffic - or, if they tried off-road entry, go into ditches - upholding this rezoning could endanger citizens.
Would area property values decline?
That's hard to say. Citizens could be overreacting, but why should the city even be in a position of putting that worry on taxpayers?
Admittedly, some of the opposition has been extreme, but people do extreme things when they feel threatened. This threat should be removed. MEMO: Comment? Call 446-2494.
KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK CITY COUNCIL PROPOSED RACE TRACK
by CNB