DATE: Tuesday, October 21, 1997             TAG: 9710210014

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

HIGH-TECH PARK A SUFFOLK SOLUTION

Suffolk is suffering the same growing pains that earlier afflicted Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Residential development sprawls on. Pressure on the city mounts for infrastructure spending - for roads, schools and utilities - that a suburban tax base can't support and that can't keep pace with the growth.

What's clearly needed is a substantial commercial influx, and several developments offer hope. Chief among them is a plan, described recently by Pilot staff writer Katrice Franklin, to create a 250-acre technology park on land once occupied by a weapons' depot.

The parcel is near the Suffolk campus of Tidewater Community College and the military's Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center and Old Dominion's related Modeling and Simulation Center. The super-computing facilities permit war games and corporations to engage in elaborate ``what if'' scenarios.

Around that core, developers envision a high-tech complex springing up that would include offices, day care, a hotel and convention center. The idea is a variation on the theme of the fabulously successful Research Triangle Park surrounded by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C., that has attracted dozens of research and development tenants.

The dream is not without its share of uncomfortable real world problems to overcome. The simulation center is a useful centerpiece, but the Research Triangle's intellectual firepower includes Duke University, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State - all within a 10-mile radius. The Suffolk dream clearly must proceed on a smaller and more specialized scale.

Also, the land in question is not yet ready for occupancy. During two world wars, when environmental protection was not a top priority, chemical spills took place and buried rocket and artillery shells have turned up.

The city would have to acquire the land from the state and proceed with development as it was cleared for use. So far, 80 acres have passed muster; but the Environmental Protection Agency is on the case, and hoops that developers will have to leap through could slow the process. Gov. George F. Allen has blocked the listing of the property as a superfund toxic site, claiming there's insufficient evidence to support such a designation. That may not end the matter, however.

That said, the site is ideally located, the simulation center already attracts a steady stream of military and civilian users from beyond our region, and Suffolk is certainly highly motivated to make something happen.

If it's true that ``where there's a will there's a way,'' Suffolk has the will, and the high-tech park may provide one way to grow the tax base, ease the pressure on residents and create a regional economic asset.

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