I know I have mentioned Virginia Beach’s Strategic Growth Areas before but I wanted to touch on them again since the Virginian Pilot had an article about SGAs in Saturday’s paper. The Pilot’s Aaron Applegate reported that, in order to make up for the fact that the city has run out of large tracts of land to develop, Virginia Beach is looking at urbanizing at least 8 high-potential areas. Six of these areas are directly in line with what will one day be a light rail line. This is the smartest thing that I have seen Virginia Beach do in a while. Until now, I never really liked Virginia Beach. The city’s design (or lack thereof) is one of wasteful and promotes heavy traffic and decreased livability. The new plans promise to get VB on the right track toward being a true city. the redeveloped areas will be higher density, walkable, conducive to mass transit, and most of all, expand VB’s take base to take the load of residential taxpayers.

Image Property of http://www.ourfuturevb.com/

Check out OurFutureVB.com and will will find a very useful website that VB has developed for its residents to educate themselves. I have to say, compared to Norfolk’s effort, this is spectacular. Norfolk’s last Comprehensive Plan was created in 1992. Norfolk apparently is working on a new one, however, the last new info posted on the website was at the end of 2008. Considering that the public review period is supposed to have been completed in June, I’m going out on a limb and saying that they might not be close to finishing. I have sent an email to the planning department to get more info.