Suffolk Council signals support for huge cargo hub

SUFFOLK

A poll of City Council members suggests the proposed CenterPoint development may already have enough support for approval later this month .

Six of eight council members spoke positively of the project Friday or said outright they were leaning toward voting for the company’s rezoning request. Another will recuse himself from voting . The proposal is scheduled for a public hearing and vote Jan. 21.

“In all fairness to them and the growth of the city, I think we got to go with it,” Councilman Jeffrey Gardy said during a break in a council retreat.

Gardy represents the borough where CenterPoint Properties wants to build a 5.8-million-square-foot distribution center. The development would provide warehouse space for port traffic while it’s built in phases over nine years.

There is public concern about how much truck traffic the project would generate . About 140

people attended a public meeting with CenterPoint representatives in September, and several there mentioned what they saw as a lack of a plan to fix the congested U.S. 58-Holland Road corridor .

Because of how the land is already zoned, CenterPoint Properties could build about 3 million square feet of its project without city approval, according to a city staff report. Company officials have also said port-related truck traffic will travel through Suffolk regardless, so the city might as well capture CenterPoint’s projected $3 million in annual real estate taxes .

Councilmen Charles Brown , Charles Parr and Joseph Barlow said they would reserve judg ment until the public hearing, but they nonetheless spoke highly of the proposal.

“I think it’s a good concept,” Brown said. “We’re going to work very hard to see if it can fit.”

Barlow said he believes approving the distribution center would help Suffolk leverage state and federal funding to widen Holland Road, where the traffic situation worried city officials even before CenterPoint’s proposal . State officials have strongly endorsed CenterPoint, calling it crucial to Virginia’s economy, but have so far not offered any money.

The developer’s engineers ha ve estimated that it would cost about $54 million to widen Holland Road. A study by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission put the figure closer to $94 million.

CenterPoint has promised to pay as much as $3.46 million toward Holland Road. The amount is tied to the percentage of new traffic that the rezoning is projected to create.

Vice Mayor Curtis Milteer Sr. said he supported CenterPoint and expressed confidence that Holland Road would be addressed somehow. The city currently has no funding dedicated to it .

Mayor Linda Johnson said she wanted to go through the public hearing but added that she believes the developer has worked hard on its proposal.

Councilman Leroy Bennett gave the least hint of his position, saying he is remaining open-minded until the public hearing.

New Councilman Robert Barclay IV said he would abstain from the vote because he learned that one of CenterPoint’s consultants is a client of Barclay’s law firm.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com