NORFOLK
An essential park-and-ride lot for the city's starter light-rail line now under construction will probably not be ready when passengers start boarding in early 2010.
Hampton Roads Transit likely will offer limited, temporary parking for the Military Highway station until land is identified to accommodate 232 parking spaces.
The original plan collapsed when a needed parcel was developed into an office building. HRT has not yet come up with an alternative.
"We continue to explore options, but our options are narrowing," said Jayne Whitney, HRT senior vice president for development.
"There's no question we will find a solution," she said. "It might be a phased
approach where we lease some spaces until we can build something."
HRT explored squeezing parking into the roadway rights of way along Military Highway and Curlew Drive, but neither option was viable.
City Councilman W. Randy Wright, who has long championed the light-rail project, said, "It's imperative that we have a park-and-ride lot there; it's a must."
Of the 11 light-rail stations, the Military Highway station is projected to be the fourth busiest, with 760 daily passengers. Federal ridership formulas indicate that 232 spaces are needed. The lot must also include a bay for connections to HRT buses.
Wright said shuttle buses are a critical link between the light-rail station and the Military Circle shopping areas. He said the city would use eminent domain as a last resort to acquire the needed property.
Residents of neighboring Elizabeth Park are eager for HRT to complete station plans.
"Our residents want to know the impact of the cars, the noise, the general buzz of a parking facility over there," said Kevin Gaydosh, Elizabeth Park Civic League president. "No one's been able to tell us that. That's the most frustrating for people, not being able to know the exact location."
"In a perfect world, all this would have been figured out before now," Mayor Paul Fraim said. "This is an expansive project, and some of these things evolve as we move along."
Fraim said the city was not willing to purchase property for the park-and-ride before federal funding was committed, which took several years.
"Some people will say it put us behind the curve," he said. "It may have slowed us down some, but it was the right decision.
"Now we're racing, full sprint, to get ahead of the project."
The original plan was to work with property owners to develop a shared parking lot, and then, as ridership grew, a transit-oriented commercial project that would include a parking garage. The land, however, was developed during the lag in federal approval process.
Assistant City Manager Stanley Stein said it might be necessary to jump ahead a step and try now to develop a parking garage, possibly in partnership with one of the current property owners. That would cost the city extra money.
The budget for the $232.1 million rail line includes money for park-and-ride lots, not costly parking garages. The other lots will be at Newtown Road, Ballentine Boulevard and Harbor Park.
The Federal Transit Administration has committed $128 million to the project. The city has dedicated $33 million, and the state will contribute $31.9 million. About $39 million is coming from other federal sources.
The 7.4-mile line will run from Eastern Virginia Medical Center through downtown Norfolk to the city line at Newtown Road. It is projected to carry 6,000 to 12,000 passengers a day.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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Who parks at Military Circle anyway?
Good luck,city of Norfolk, with getting commuters to park their cars at Military Circle all day.
Norfolk Planning Department
The Norfolk Planning Department dropped the ball. They have oversight on land use; they didn't catch it.
No, this wouldn't happen in Virginia Beach: our City watches land transactions too closely.
On a couple of the comments:
1. It won't necessarily mean a higher cost. You reconfigure the lot, and the new configuration may mean no more cash.
2. There won't be another referendum in Virginia Beach. Under HB 6028, light rail in VB is a state project, and only the General Assembly can put it to referendum. They won't.
Soo true
hahahaha, that's soo true...I can't wait to see all the naysayers on opening day, we should all wear shirts with our hamptonroads.com usernames on it so we can point out all the doubters...cause you know they'll be there!!!
same thing
Same negativity from the same people each time any article is posted about the LR. Reid, I would have thought you would have posted something negative first thing this morning... took a while.
Can these guys please run my healthcare for me?
Or my retirement savings?
Oh...where did that come from.
Just now the found out there IS an office building on the planned lot. Nobody has been following the plan and checking things out. They just noticed NOW. That is one of eleven, Norfolk State backed out of their support and made new demands. So far that is an 18% failure rate for planned stops. How many more stops will encounter major problems and need review and relocation. Sorry Norfolk - at least we here in the Beach will vote it down again because the Beach plans as well as your "cities politicians". The lined pockets are going to pull out and leave the city with the mess.
I'm not hearing any solutions...
I would love to say that I'm shocked by all of the negative comments on this issue but unfortunately I'm not. We've become a society that does nothing but complain and point the finger and blame our government for being ineffective or ill prepared when something goes wrong. Out of all of these comments not one includes a proposed solution to the problem. Sure it's annoying to see a large project hit a snag but guess what, that's the nature of the beast. Our community NEEDS a mass transit solution and this is the beginning. As the taxpayers and potential patrons we have to be involved and figure out how to make it work. I, for one, will be contacting my Council member for further information on the issue and when I'm better informed, I might even put forth an idea. I challenge all of the nay-sayers to do the same!
More HRT cost over runs expected, is anyone surprised?
. . . and the cost over runs just keep coming ... the article points out the land that HRT wanted for the park and ride now has an office building on it. Ops, the cost will go up. HRT and Light rail advocates say, "So sorry taxpayers ... our bad." And then attempt to blame the Federal government for it. I'd laugh if it wasn't so many tax dollars being wasted.
Ruined already!
East Norfolk and Military Circle Mall, 2 areas many avoid and now the choo choo paid for with tax payers money will also be included!
LOL
So, they decided to put a parking lot on a piece of property, but apparently neglected to tell the property owner of their intentions? Property owner subsequently develops on his property. Did the property owner know about the interest in his property and then rush to build there? Did our crack VP reporting staff interview the property owner?
A lot we don't know about how this happened. Eminemt domain? If that's going to be the course of action, simply take the property you wanted in the first place.
One thing is constant - you can always count on Norfolk to give us VB residents something to be thankful for.
Still a problem
The issues with the design of light rail is there is no bus infrastructure in place, or even publicly identifed to feed the train stations. Does no good to have 266 parking places at newtown road. This will only take cars off I-264 into norfolk. Maybe a whopping 1,00 cars a day. WOW!
But there will still be traffic. People have to drive to a parking lot. Where's the savings there? The current MAX express service is another HRT humiliating failure. I see maybe 6 people per bus on the routes I ride daily. No one wants to drive to a park/ride then ride a bus, then walk to work. It failed in 2003, failing in 2008, and light rail will be no better.
In response to peejcj8
you're thinking about the wrong end of the track. The attractive destinations near Newtown road are people's homes. It is from Newtown Road ( lots of suburbs) to downtown Norfolk (where lots of those people work) that is significant. I will be moving my office to downtown portsomouth soon and live near military circle. I look forward to being able to park, ride and ferry back and forth to work. I hope it works out.
Mis-Managed
Just another typical example of how mis-managed the norfolk controlled HRT is.
It's too bad the federal and state government does not step in and halt the waste of $230 million on this toy train.
I have a question
I still do not know who will ride this train? Newtown road is not exactly a major attraction. Maybe Im just short sighted?
No surprises here.....
How can a project this big go forward and a major detail such as parking not be resolved? Amazing, only in Norfolk! If this was a business, heads would roll.
This project doesn't seem planned out very well.
It seems there is snag after snag and it's still early in the game. If we are going to do this, then the very least we can expect is to have the planners do it correctly. Otherwise, it will be the same old build it and NO ONE will come and it won't be understood or used. Just another expensive wasteful, costly project.
Poor Planning
What do you mean the property is no longer available for a park & ride lot? What have those HRT bozo's been doing? How can you plan a light rail and not nail down an integral part of the system such as that park & ride lot. The lot is key to a successful number of commuters using the line. The light rail needs to be immediately successful in order to gain public acceptance. Last year Charlotte launched their first light rail and the parking lots made it successful from Day 1! The media will be all over this project; and if the public does not have a convenient way to use the light rail - they won't. The resulting negative publicity will send a message to the public that the light rail is not convenient and keep potential riders away. HRT needs to wake up!
Typical government. Typical
Typical government. Typical planning or lack of. Now because they did not plan properly, a property owner might lose their land. Way to go Norfolk.