THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601030158
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
If you've taken a ride in northern Suffolk recently - or if you've gone on an armchair tour simply by perusing building permits - it's likely no surprise to you that growth is not so much something to be discussed as part of the city's future as an issue to be reckoned with now.
Indeed, you needn't limit yourself to the northern sector. Practically any way you travel, you'll find residential and commercial growth in areas that you may have envisioned forever rural.
Little, of course, is forever, and change is coming fast to Suffolk. Pick practically any major route - and many minor routes as well, unfortunately - and you see the impact: huge stores in areas where tractors once plowed; parking lots where soybeans once flourished; hundreds of houses on sites that once made one big field; tiny roads suddenly overburdened by more traffic than their builders ever envisioned.
And you want something heavy to think about? This is just the beginning. The sleeping giant, while certainly more fitful than in the past, is nowhere near fully awake.
For as long as people who apply such labels have been calling Suffolk the sleeping giant of Hampton Roads, others have vowed that the city must not let the story of unbridled growth become Suffolk's sad tale as it did Virginia Beach's.
Never, those people have urged, should developers be permitted to gain such control that they carve Suffolk into the mishmash that defines too much of Virginia Beach. No way, they've urged, should every one of Suffolk's 430 square miles be subjected to a formula considering only how many of anything - not of what quality - could be shoe-horned into place.
The idealism already is being tested, as shown in a recent rezoning request for a subdivision on what is now a horse farm. No, would-be neighbors said to the developer's plan, and the number of building lots was reduced by the City Council as a condition for approval.
So how does that matter to anyone but the neighbors? The more residents Suffolk gets, the more costly services it must provide - among them sewerage, water, garbage collection, police and fire protection, classrooms and recreation.
And someone must pay, whether it's new residents, who resent high taxes to extend services to long-time residents; or long-timers, who resent high taxes so newcomers can have what they've done without for so long.
Growth matters to everyone, because there is no way Suffolk can raise enough money through residential taxes and special fees to support municipal services.
And that gets to a resolution every resident should make this year: to take a more active role in defining the kind of city Suffolk will be when it grows up.
Two things come immediately to mind:
(1) Learn what the city is doing to attract industry and commerce.
Secrecy is part of the game in such recruitment, but it's no secret that Suffolk has announced no major new corporate residents - those with big numbers of good paying jobs - in a long time.
Make it known (a) that you understand that, without such growth, the toll of rapid residential growth will fall on you; (b) that you won't stand for it; and (c) that you're expecting announcement of the so-often-promised industry.
(2) Act as if city government worked for you.
If you haven't met your City Council representative, do it. Find out where he/she stands on issues vital to you and the city as a whole.
Voters in four Suffolk boroughs get to elect council members this year. Their votes should reflect their confidence in the candidates to lead Suffolk in a growth period that is only beginning. MEMO: Comment? Write to the editor, or call 934-7553.
by CNB