SPSA unveils beautification plans for Portsmouth plant

PORTSMOUTH

Living next door to a garbage plant has never been easy for residents of the Cradock neighborhood in Portsmouth.

But the regional waste authority, after years of fielding complaints of foul odors and urban blight, unveiled plans Wednesday to soften the blow.

With $250,000 dedicated to the effort, the Southeastern Public Service Authority showed off drawings of a tree-lined Victory Boulevard, of tall evergreens and sunny black-eyed Susans screening homes from two stark trash facilities, of handsome signs and a greener vantage.

"We can't hide the smokestacks," said Taylor Gould, a landscape architect hired for the job, "but we can make them fit in a lot better."

Gould, with the Norfolk firm MMM Design Group, said the area today is dominated by dead or dying trees and similarly moribund soils. While a "gateway" to the city, the straight-line of Victory Boulevard is brown, cold and barren - hardly the place for a historic community such as Cradock.

But, after removing old soils and replacing them with new earth, Gould said, the corridor could be pretty and inviting, bordered on both sides with native trees, flowers and shrubs that also would minimize upkeep.

He suggested that the two SPSA facilities there - a trash-sorting center and a garbage-burning power plant across the street, connected by a worn, metallic conveyer belt overhead - be painted gray or sky blue.

The two buildings, which both date to the late 1980s, have not been "touched in 20 years or so," said Louis Jordan, SPSA's deputy director. He suggested at least power-washing them as part of the effort.

The beautification plans come as SPSA is seeking to sell the power plant as part of an overall reform program to make the agency more efficient and cost-wise.

SPSA owes about $240 million in old debts. Its executive director, John Hadfield, is retiring in August, and several other top officials have either left the agency or accepted early-retirement buyouts in the past two years.

The power plant, which Gould described as "a monster building," needs about $10 million in improvements next year. It burns about half of the garbage that SPSA receives from eight cities and counties in South Hampton Roads and converts the wastes to steam and electricity for sale to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Dominion Virginia Power.

Across the street, and closer to Cradock, is another large facility that accepts hundreds of tons of trash a day. Workers sort the garbage inside and send flammable materials to the power plant via conveyor belts.

The beautification plans stem from two years of meetings with Cradock residents on the Citizens Advisory Committee over how SPSA can be a better neighbor and be more responsive to complaints.

Rick Warren, who lives about a mile from the plant and chairs the advisory committee, said odor controls installed recently by SPSA are working nicely so far this summer.

He likes the landscape plans, too. "It's not going to happen overnight," Warren said, "and the trees will take years to establish themselves. But it definitely should make the area more appealing. And that's what we're trying to accomplish."

There is, however, a question of money.

Gould could not say Wednesday what the landscape plans will cost to implement. Jordan, SPSA's deputy director, said the agency intends to spend the $250,000 appropriated for "infrastructure improvements" at the two facilities next fiscal year and "see how far that gets us."

"We can do an awful lot with this," Jordan said.

Ray Smith, a Portsmouth city councilman who sits on SPSA's board of directors, said he wants Gould to make a presentation to the full City Council as soon as possible in hope of forming a partnership.

"I'm quite encouraged by what I see," Smith said. "These are the type of streetscapes we should be pursuing at our gateways."

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com